Earthbound: Chosen Crusade
by Dreaming of Magicant
Summary: After his defeat on Mt. Itoi, Giegue returned as Giygas and began wrapping the world in darkness with his immense power. The only ones who can stop him are the Chosen Four, the heroes chosen by the Earth itself to defend it. The hero from before, Ninten, has found the first of the four, Ness. But when he starts showing the same power Giegue did, it's unclear who is more dangerous.
1. Prologue

**MT. ITOI, SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA**

 **EARTH'S LAST STAND**

 **AUGUST 11th, 1988**

Ninten had seen some strange stuff in his short life, but the strangest thing that stood out to him as he stood at the end of his journey, side by side with his gently shivering friends, was how right it felt. Ending it all on Mt. Itoi, to be more specific. He, Ana, and Lloyd had been to this mountain… how many times now? Three? All Ninten remembered was that there had been a lot of climbing and crying. Tragedy hung around this place like a dewy mist, clinging to every crag on the cursed mountain.

So of course this godforsaken place would be where all of their paths would lead. Where had Ana's UFO-abducted parents been? Mt. Itoi, with enough deep caves for all your alien base related needs. Where did Teddy lose his parents? Mt. Itoi, where Death keeps a holiday home. Where did poor E.V.E get totally, completely scrapped beyond even Lloyd's abilities for repair? Mt. Itoi, where the best laid plans of men are eaten by homework-starved dogs. With rabies.

So where did Ninten's and the world's final enemy decide to land in a few minutes, in order to begin his invasion of the Earth and destroy everything Ninten had ever known, leaving the planet a charred, black husk? Good ol' Mt. Itoi, where hope goes to croak! But nonetheless, that is how it happened, and even though being there had never done anything good for them… OK, well one good thing had happened to Ninten there… they came anyways, not backing down from this one, final challenge.

Ninten stood at the front of the three, keeping his eyes glued to the horizon for any sign of that final enemy's, Giegue's ship. His clothes were muddy and tattered in places, with something that looked suspiciously like bear drool on the back of his shirt. (Yet another future nightmare, courtesy of Mt. Itoi!) He held his red hat on his head as a gust of wind stirred up from nowhere, but otherwise didn't seem too bothered. _If I let something as small as that,_ Ninten thought bitterly, gripping his bat even tighter in his hand, _if I let that get to me then I'd have no right to face Giegue!_

Suddenly, Ana tensed up, and Ninten's thoughts halted instantly. Ninten extended his telepathy in her direction, sending a silent question her way.

 _How close is he?_ Ninten asked, letting his mind connect with hers, once again getting that pleasant, tingly feeling he always got when their thoughts touched. He had to smile a bit. It was a different sensation from everyone else in the world. It didn't matter if everyone on Earth was in one room, thinking towards Ninten at the same time. He'd always be able to tell his girl apart from the others.

Ana's answer however, quickly drove the smile off his face. _I… I don't know…_

"What?!" Ninten shouted out loud, startling Lloyd from his own thoughts so badly that he dropped a bottle rocket down the crags below, where it detonated with the sound of a Ten-tentacled-Mook screaming. (Under normal circumstances, a sadistic chuckle would be in order… but this was serious.) This **couldn't** happen, it had never happened before. If Ana sensed you, she knew where you were and how strong you were. Period. If you were a psychic, she'd know your moves at a glance, know exactly how to counter them and how to blast you to pieces. Ana was, in fact, one of the most prodigal psychics on Earth. (Granted, there were maybe only three human psychics on the planet. That was a pretty big maybe though. At any rate, she was better at sensing than Ninten, who couldn't sense a psychic if it spit in his eye.)

Ana flinched at Ninten's sudden outburst, and a wave of guilt washed over him. "Oh, S-sorry Ana…" Ninten muttered sheepishly.

"Um… so, what do you mean, you don't know?" Ninten said hurriedly, getting back on track.

"I don't know," Ana replied simply, clearly shaken, "I… well, I can sense him! But… it's funny. Or terrifying."

"What is?"

"I don't know exactly, but I get the feeling that, well… Giegue is still in space."

Ninten blinked, feeling at least slightly relieved. "Oh, is that all? Then your range has gotten big-"

"No!" Ana said forcefully, stopping Ninten in his tracks. She shook all over, clenching her hands into tight fists at her side. "No… my range is the same as always, it's just… He's so far away that normally I shouldn't be able to feel it, even if he's coming fast. It's just that, even though he's farther away than the moon, his power is-"

There was a huge crash up above, as if the sky itself was shattering, and the whirring of a grand machine hummed over them. The sky turned black as the inky space from which it came from, black as death. The gargantuan gray spaceship slowly turned to face them, and in its depths two beady eyes sparkled at them.

Ninten's mouth went dry. Ana looked like she was about to faint. Lloyd gulped slowly, "H-Hey guys… d-do you think t-that I may have become a Ps-Ps-Psychic?" His eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his glasses, "B-Because even I can feel that thing!"

It was true. The power that resonated from within was so powerful even Ninten, no, Lloyd too could sense it no problem. Ninten doubted there was a person in the world who didn't feel a shiver go up their spine that day. But none more than these children at the summit. For when they looked up into Giegue's eyes behind the glass-like pod he now came down in, all they saw was the vastness of infinity.

Now, in the face of this, it was quite plain to all of them the reality of the situation they were in.

"Ninten! I am very grateful to your family," Giegue rumbled.

They had made a mistake.

* * *

Right off the bat, things were going terribly. Ninten didn't even have time to blink before Giegue's PSI hit, knocking him off his feet and destroying the ground where he once stood. In the corner of his vision he saw Ana hold her hands out in front of her, mouth moving frantically. He couldn't hear what was said, but a glowing blue barrier appeared in front of her and Lloyd just as the wall of force washed over them. There was a scream, and blue shards of the psychic barrier flew everywhere.

 _Ana! Lloyd!_ Ninten righted himself in the air to land on his hands and feet a while away, spurred by the thought of his friends' suffering. He gripped his bat with both hands and whipped around to face Giegue, who was still floating just off the edge of the cliff in his pod, his face a mask. Without thinking, Ninten found himself rushing at the alien, weapon at the ready. His eyes began to glow a neon blue as he concentrated, and he shouted, "PSI QuickUp!"

With those words, the PSI within him exploded, and he became a red blur, streaking past the quickly recovering Ana and Lloyd at speeds that would make a cheetah faint outright. He leapt off the cliff and, with a savage cry, brought his bat down on Giegue's pod with a mighty swing! As his bat connected, Psychic energy shot out from the impact like red lightning bolts all around. The Earth rumbled. Giegue's expression did not change.

But Ninten wasn't done yet! "PSI Offense Up!" he yelled, and his bat glowed a violent orange and hummed with the incredible power barely contained within. Ninten attacked in a rain of blows, his arms a blur as he whaled on Giegue with everything he had. Finally, he kicked off of the pod and back towards the cliff side of Mt. Itoi, letting loose one last burst of plain Psychokinesis at the pod, hoping to break at least something. He heard a satisfying thunk as the wall of energy rammed the glass of the capsule.

He touched down, a perfect ten point landing! He would've smiled to himself then with how cool he no doubt looked, if not for the fact that the power overhead hadn't faded one bit. He scowled at the pod above. _All that and I didn't even make a scratch on it?_ He thought in disbelief.

Yet it was true. Neither Giegue nor the pod looked any worse for the wear. Next to Ninten, Ana and Lloyd were finally up. Ana clapped her hands together and Ninten felt the rush of power that flowed forth from the girl. "PSI LifeUp! Omega!" she cried.

A green aura flooded the area around the summit of the mountain, and Ninten's wounds closed up immediately. He blinked. He had barely noticed when he had gotten them. The mountain erupted into bloom as millions of flowers broke the ground at the summit, compelled by Ana's PSI power. In no time the battleground was as pungent as a perfume shop, and Ninten had to gag a little.

Yet Ana wasted no time after bringing everyone back to health. Immediately she prepared her next attack, eyes aglow with the energy she was building up. "PK…"

"Your great-grandparents, George and Maria, raised me," Giegue informed, as Ana completed her incantation.

"Fire Gamma!" Ana ended her spell, and the sky turned a brilliant red. A wave of crackling violet flame erupted from the ground, feeding off of all the flowers and growing ever brighter and hotter as it raced towards Giegue, finally leaping off the edge to consume him.

"But, George stole vital information from my planet that can be used to betray my people…" Giegue went on as the fire greedily engulfed him. As it surrounded his pod, it suddenly exploded and grew nearly ten times as humongous, and ten times as hot. It was as if the sun itself had come down to Earth to eradicate the alien, and even Ninten and Lloyd broke out into sweats despite being as far from the center of blast as they were. The fireworks continued in a cacophony of loud bangs and crackles as the bright violet lit up the sky, and Giegue was no longer visible amid the chorus of flames.

But then, there was the feeling. It was a feeling that washed over the children, like suddenly being drenched from head to toe in cold water. For a second, it was as if time itself had stopped, and the world had become a pale gray. Then, there was a horrible sound that made all the children cover their ears and shut their eyes together. It could only be described as the sound of a thousand glass panes being broken all at once. While screaming.

When they opened their eyes, they saw Giegue, floating just off the cliff as always, not a scratch on him or the pod. The Psychic flames had disappeared entirely, leaving not a trace behind, not even the heat of before. The sky was back to black. The peak was completely silent. Ninten gawked in disbelief as he saw that on the mountain, not even one flower had been burned, and his clothes weren't even wet from all the sweat he could've sworn he had been drenched in a moment ago! It was as if the fire had never existed in the first place.

All that was left was a horrible, red, evil feeling PSI that faded quickly into nothing before their very eyes. Ninten knew that a PSI move was the cause of this. He looked towards Ana.

"Ana… WHAT DID GIEGUE JUST DO?!" Ninten could not contain his panic. He had never seen such an attack before, he had never even imagined it was possible. Sure, PSI could manipulate the matter around them, could cause enough friction to make a fire or cool the air to create ice, even move electrons around to throw lightning. They could even fly and teleport thanks to PSI interacting with the world around them. But never, never had he seen a move that could erase something's existence from the world. Never had PSI ever completely broken the laws of nature, had destroyed that matter which Newton had stated could never be created or destroyed. PSI bent the rules, but it had never broken them.

Ana whispered her answer, and Ninten had to strain to hear it. "I… don't know. That's not… that's not a power that should even exist!" She started to hyperventilate, and Ninten knew what was coming. He ducked, and Lloyd behind him did the same.

" **That's not supposed to exist!** " Ana screamed, throwing her hands in front of her and letting her Psychic Power loose. It wasn't just her eyes this time, but her entire body pulsed violet PSI. "PK Beam Omega!"

There was a great flash, and violent roar like a dragon's rage. A great yellow laser shot forth from her hands, and engulfed Giegue and his pod. Even after hitting its target, the PK Beam kept going, and Ninten knew it would keep on going and going, even out into space, far after Ana had cut off her PSI flow. Far, far away, something was destined for complete, random annihilation. As it always was when Ana freaked out and unleashed her most deadly of moves, the PK Beam that could crush even the moon.

Giegue's voice swept over the children yet again. "And now, one of his descendants is obstructing our plans, and must be stopped! Ninten, I am talking about you!"

 _Unharmed again?_ Ninten just had time to think this before the sound of broken glass pierced his ears yet again. However, this time it was coupled with Ana's scream next to him, and he quickly jerked his head over to see what was wrong. Ana had fallen over screaming, clutching at her face frantically.

"My nobe! Mff node!" She screamed, as her hands glowed green with a LifeUp. Ninten could feel waves of pain coming off her, and knew at once that somehow, her nose had been broken. It… It couldn't be! Ninten hadn't even seen a single PSI wave come out of Giegue, and if he was doing a physical attack with PSI they should've at least have been able to see its glow before it happened, that was how PSI worked. Instead… it was instantaneous! There was no time to react at all, Giegue just spoke and it happened!

The pod exploded suddenly, jolting Ninten from his thoughts. Then it exploded again, and again, and once more. Lloyd gave a giant whoop of success. "Y-Y-Yeah! H-How do you l-like that you m-m-m-monster!" Lloyd taunted, already aiming another bottle rocket barrage at Giegue. Ninten was reminded of why he had let the boy onto his team in the first place. The guy was a master of explosives! Or at least a master of making things that hurt people. At any rate, it was nice to have him around.

"Lloyd!" Ninten called to him, "Nice shot!"

Lloyd smiled back at him, but just before he could launch another volley, the voice of Giegue came back, louder than ever.

"Foolish one, you cannot do a thing with your meager powers…" The boys' smiles died. Giegue was unharmed! Always unharmed!

"How can you hope to defeat an adult with mere children's toys?" Giegue spoke confidently, unperturbed in the face of everything they had thrown at him.

Ninten's resolve shook a little. How in the world could they stop this monster? But he shook his head to clear away the doubt that clouded his mind. No, they would win. They had to win!

"PSI OFFENSE UP!" he yelled, his bat cracking a bit from all the energy that kept pouring into it. He was gasping for breath at his point, but he stayed firm. This was Earth's last stand. He wasn't going to go out without a fight!

"Ninten! Don't do it!" Ana yelled, realizing that he was going in for another charge,

"His attacks are inexplicable! Until we understand them…"

"We don't have time to understand them!" Ninten snapped back, already making the dash towards Giegue, "All we have to know is, if he is allowed to get away…"

He jumped off the ledge, facing Giegue head on. "Earth will be destroyed!" He yelled with all the fury that bubbled up at the thought, and swung his bat down as he let it explode. Finally, the sound of broken glass was heard on the top of the Mt. Itoi, and Ninten's screaming grew louder and louder with each swing he brought down on Giegue's head. He was seeing red, and adrenaline was pumping through him. Nothing could stop him now!

He was stopped immediately.

Suddenly he froze, as invisible threads held him back. His vision cleared, and he saw that, even though the pod's glass was definitely broken, the hideous, gray face of Giegue was still undamaged. Giegue's blood-red PSI enveloped Ninten, smothered him in it.

He could feel Giegue's breath on his face as the alien spoke again. "Ninten."

Ninten closed his eyes and braced himself. One of the alien's bony hands ran down the side of Ninten's face, and he blinked them open. It was surprisingly soft.

"You alone. I may save you. Just you alone…" Giegue laughed, actually laughed. It was a pleasant thing to hear, it almost reminded Ninten of Ana's, as scarce few times as he had heard that. Ninten's shoulders visibly relaxed. In the distance he could dimly hear his friend's shouting at something. But at what? Ninten didn't know. Why had he come here again?

"Come. Board our Mother Ship with me," Giegue gestured towards the Mother Ship behind him. Ninten stared sleepily into the doorway behind, at the darkness of the interior. Briefly, he thought of what it would be like, to live there, to fly through space…

"Ninten!"

Ana's PSI fueled scream came through loud and clear, and Ninten was snapped back to his senses. He erected a barrier in his mind immediately, gratefully welcoming his free consciousness back. He had almost let Giegue hypnotize him! Him! Ninten!

He found strength in his limbs once again, and kicked off of Giegue's face back onto the mountain, and without a pause he threw his baseball bat square into Giegue's eye. He grasped at his chest, panting heavily and sweating all over.

"Oh man…" he moaned, falling to one knee, "I think my asthma's acting up again…"

Ana dropped down beside him. Ninten saw there were tears in her eyes. "Ninten, you didn't actually think…"

"It was some really powerful mojo," Ninten said, getting up with some effort. "It was hard to get out of, but I did in the end. You don't have to worry," he assured her.

He looked up at Giegue yet again, and saw, unexpectedly, a hint of surprise on Giegue's face. Of course the bat hadn't really hit him, Giegue was a powerful Psychic, halting a bat hurled at him was far from an ordeal. But nonetheless he looked… wounded. He didn't talk for the longest time, and Mt. Itoiwas quiet. Ninten scarcely realized he was holding his breath, waiting for Giegue's next move.

Finally, the alien spoke once more. "…Then fall into a long sleep with your 'friends' and the other ugly Earth People."

Time seemed to freeze, and the earsplitting sound of a million windows shattering was heard once again. And suddenly, everyone on Earth, no, everything on Earth cried out in agony. Suddenly, the children could no longer support themselves, and fell down to the earth writhing in pain. Everything hurt. Ninten could tell in a moment that, in that very instant, Giegue had broken every single bone in his body. Judging by the screams of his friends, it was the same for them too. The birds above fell from the sky wailing. The fish in the lake came floating to the surface. Doctors around the world applied for bigger wallets.

Every bone on Earth had been broken all at once.

Then, just as suddenly as it started, it ended. There was a sound of breaking glass again, and the pain stopped. Ninten opened his eyes to find that everything was still in place, and he shivered. It was gone. Just like the PK Fire, gone.

Giegue hovered above him, cruelty glinting in his black eyes, and he lazily raised a hand towards Ninten.

Ninten closed his eyes, waiting for the blow to come.

And Ana began singing.


	2. Chapter 1: Ness

**ONETT, EAGLELAND**

 **LANDING IN 3…**

 **FEBRUARY 4th, 199X**

 **MIDNIGHT**

Ness woke up on the ceiling again. He was starting to get tired of it now. He yawned lazily and wiped the sleep from his eyes, then braced himself as he began to fall back. He hoped that he was at least above his bed this time. Just yesterday he had woken up above his nightstand instead, and the landing had been third most painful thing to happen to him thus far.

When had he started waking up on the floating across the ceiling? Ness couldn't remember, but it had gotten worse recently. The last time he had woken up in his bed was a week ago. He'd always fall as wisps of red smoke vanished into thin air. 9 times out of 10 he'd land back in bed and go right back to sleep.

He crashed down on the ground just three feet from his bed. Apparently this time was the 1 in 10.

Ness scratched his head. For the life of him he couldn't remember what had woken him up, and he for a while he lay there, trying to remember. Faintly, he heard the wailing of police sirens from outside.

Ness gasped as he remembered, sitting bolt upright in bed. _That's right!_ Ness thought, hurriedly getting out of bed, _There was an explosion! A huge 'Bang!' of an explosion!_

His face lit up even as he tried to step over and around the mess that was his room. Old toys and crayons littered the floor, as well as countless drawings of countless fantastical creatures and places drawn as recently as yesterday. They depicted the Loch Tess Monster, pink clouds in the sky, and an ancient crypt, to name a few. They all had a word under them, scratched down in bright red letters clearly legible even in the dark of night, **"SOMEDAY!"**

He threw the door open and began his sprint in earnest, his feet pattering against the wood floor energetically in the dark. His eyes were trained straight ahead though he couldn't see much else than the blackness. Ness didn't care that he couldn't see where he was going though. He knew where he was going: Wherever that explosion had come from, he'd be, and nothing would stop him!

He was immediately stopped.

Suddenly, something unseen whizzed through the air and whacked him square in the middle of the head. Ness gave a cry of surprise hit the floor. The back of his head was painfully acquainted with the hardwood floor. He groaned miserably as the lights flickered on to reveal the face of his attacker. He looked up dizzily at the blurry figure that barred his way, and waited for his sight to clear up.

His assailant was his little sister Tracy. Of course it was Tracy.

She clutched a cracked bat in her hands shakily as she stared down at Ness, eyes wild with fear. Her blonde hair stood up almost straight, and even her voice seemed rattled. "A-An intruder? Who's-" her eyes cleared at seeing her brother on the floor with a fresh goose egg on his noggin, "What the hey? It's just big bro?"

She looked quite annoyed now. "What in the world are you doing? Did the sound wake you up? You were running really fast…" she said, calming down a little.

She sighed. "Between you and that crash, I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep anymore. Do you think Mom will let me stay up late toni-"

But Ness was already gone as soon as she had said "crash". He nimbly jumped to feet from the ground, and the determined look in his eyes redoubled in its intensity. The redness from the blow by the bat had already faded. He brushed by his sister and dashed on ahead, earning himself another "What the hey?!" from his disgruntled little sis.

As far as Ness was concerned, hearing that it was a crash just made it more urgent to check it out. His mind raced with the possibilities as he bounded down the steps. A plane had gone down! Or maybe spacemen had gone skydiving from their saucers, and one klutz forgot the rocket boots? He shook his head. No, who said that the crash had come from above? It could just have easily have been the molemen, choosing Onett to begin their conquest of the surface world! Or better yet, to accept Ness as one of their own, after he had dug to find their city so many times… That would at least make them more appreciative of the hard work than the policemen, who would commit such atrocities as making him undo his efforts just because he was on "private property".

He reached the bottom of the stairs and saw the door dead ahead, just past the kitchen and living rooms of the house. However, he also saw his final obstacles, and his eyes narrowed. Close to door slept white dog, with grey splotches all over his fur. He looked unperturbed by the explosion/crash/possible moleman invasion, and simply slept in front of the door.

 _King,_ Ness thought, _Why'd he have to decide to sleep in front of door tonight? …No, it's not so bad. I can get past him easy. The real problem is…_ His eyes locked on the other figure in his path, a blonde woman in red whose very presence here made getting out significantly more of an ordeal. If she were to see him, it was game over. He'd never escape her grasp, none of his strength would be of any use then, not against her. He would have to use all his wits to overcome this terrifying force called Mother.

His plan of action was decided before his feet even touched the ground. He would kick with all his strength and fling a shoe towards the far corner of the room. When Mom was distracted by the noise that made, she'd have to turn towards it, if only for a moment. When that opportunity came, Ness would put on a burst of speed, and leap over King and through the door to adventure! He grinned, and with a mighty kick began putting his plan in motion.

In that instant, Ness noticed the crucial flaw to his plan, but by then it was too late.

He had forgotten that he was wearing slippers on a hardwood floor.

Ness lost his balance and slipped as soon as his leg had left the floor, and fell over backwards for the second time that night. His slipper flew off his foot, ricocheted off the walls, and went out the window. Ness was dumbstruck, dazed, and disbelieving at his own rotten luck.

His mom turned and saw him, looking surprised for half a moment until she saw it was Ness. An amused smile spread across her face, "And here I was wondering what that noise was."

Ness said nothing, his face just flushed with shame and he averted his eyes.

Mom giggled, "Are you nuts? There was such a loud blast earlier, yet you're not scared a bit are you? And knowing you, you were on your way to check it out now weren't you, hoping to get by me with some diversion or something, yes?"

Ness became even redder. He wished the Earth would just swallow him up now. _But… I won't give up that easily!_ Ness looked up at his mother, his eyes as filled with determination as ever. He was not beaten yet.

Mom gave him a long, hard stare, and then sighed. "…Oh… Okay. You'll sneak out of your room anyway, even if I asked you not to huh?" She sighed once again, than gave him a warm smile. "At least change out of your jammies before you go, okay?"

Ness was startled. His jaw dropped, but he quickly regained composure. He beamed at his Mom glowingly. _Mom…_

He thought of saying something, but he thought better of it. He went back upstairs to change, heart full of gratitude.

* * *

A few minutes later and Ness slipping on his yellow backpack. He had gotten dressed quickly, just grabbing whatever happened to be closest and slapping it on. The end result turned out well enough though, and Ness was glad for that. He wore a yellow and blue striped tee with some shorts and his favorite red cap, with the logo of his favorite baseball team, the Twoson Two-Timers.

He smiled to himself with the anticipation and went to the door of his room, ready to go back downstairs, say goodbye to his Mom, and head out to find the source of the explosion. To think that Ness was **that** close to leaving his house in a normal fashion. As it was, a loud screech from outside caught his attention, the obnoxious sound of a police megaphone being tuned before a special announcement. It halted him in his tracks, and he suddenly noticed that his window was open. Without a moment of hesitation, Ness ran and jumped through, making sure to somersault on his landing to avoid the full impact. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light from the multitude of police cars that were parked barely ten feet in front of him, though most of the light was obscured by the crowd of people who had showed up.

"Don't panic! I repeat, don't panic!" an officer yelled through the megaphone at the crowd, looking considerably more panicked than the sleepy, annoyed crowd he barked at. "It's just a… **WHAT?!** " The officer suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs through the megaphone, fury unleashed from nothing in particular. Ness sighed. He knew this man, had dealt with him time and time again over his long career of mischief. Captain Strong, known throughout the city as the angriest officer in the Onett, possibly the shortest fuse under the sun and certainly the baddest cop in Eagleland. One false move would set him off in a fashion so explosive that even the blast that had woken up the neighborhood paled in comparison. Every encounter Ness had had with him had ended in Ness going home in a police car or going to the hospital with more lumps on the head than there were graves in Threed. Ness honestly thought that whoever came up with the bright idea to give that ball of rage the mic should be fired immediately.

Captain Strong looked as if he was calming down a bit. " **DON'T PANIC!** " He roared into the mike, "It's just a meteorite that-"

"A meteorite?!" Ness squealed, barely able to contain his excitement. This was beyond his expectations! Immediately thoughts of aliens, time travelers, and much else flooded him.

" **WHO?!** " Captain Strong yelled, focusing now on the boy, who suddenly looked thunderstruck. He immediately recognized Ness, and, even though it didn't look possible, he looked even angrier than before. "Here, hold this," Captain Strong threw his megaphone at the closest person, a kid wearing all orange with the second thickest pair of glasses Ness had ever seen. The kid stumbled backwards as the megaphone was chucked into his chest, giving a grunt of astonishment.

"Just take this and make sure no one gets through cadet! I've got bigger fish to fry," Captain Strong said with a grimace, stomping towards Ness through the crowd, " **AND IF EVEN A SINGLE ONE OF THEM GETS THROUGH, YOU'LL BE ON DESK DUTY UNTIL YOUR ARMS FALL OFF!** " Bewildered and confused, the orange kid saluted the captain on his way past.

Finally, he made it to Ness, who hadn't moved a muscle. Somehow, he looked like the most astonished person in the area, even taking into consideration the kid with the megaphone. Strong crouched down to meet Ness head-on, so close that Ness could almost count the hairs in his handlebar mustache.

"Well, well, well, does that make three disasters now? First a meteor crashes down, then the Sharks Gang run wild in the town, and to top it all off, Mister Mishaps himself shows up, a certain Ne-"

"Shoot!" Ness interrupted, stomping his foot on the ground in frustration. "17 days! I could only do it for 17 days, nowhere near the record. If I can't avoid talking for 17 days," Ness continued his rant, letting it all out, "Then how am I supposed to get past 59 weeks? The world record was already so far away… and now I'm back to square one?"

Ness gave an irritated grunt and folded his arms, looking down at his feet and thinking of all the effort it had taken just to get that far. "Alright. Forget it. I quit. I'll go for something else," he nodded in agreement with himself, as Captain Strong just stood and stared on, "Yeah, pretty sure there's an easier record out there…"

" **WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THIS?!** " Strong shouted, almost blowing Ness over with the sheer force of it. Ness took a startled step back, only just now had he realized that Captain Strong was standing in front of him.

"Ah. Strong? When'd you get here?" Ness asked, surprised, "You should go back. Oh, never mind! Where's the meteor? You mentioned a meteorite, right?" His curiosity quickly outweighed his fear of dealing with the Captain. Well… fear wasn't the right word for it, really. It's more like it was a waste of perfectly good time to deal with the Captain, time that could be used to daydream, explore the woods, or play baseball. Ness didn't like his loud voice, sure, and getting beaten up wasn't his idea of a good time. However, loudness couldn't kill him, and Ness had always healed up fast. One time when he was little he had even broken his arm falling from his bike, and he was able to take the cast off three days later. The doctor had said the boy must've had a guardian angel watching over him.

" **WHAT?!** Where's the meteor?! It's just at the top of the hill right over there you daft-"

"'Kay. Bye," Ness gave the man a salute and was off in the direction Strong had pointed, leaving the Captain far behind. He raced over the slick, dew-soaked grass all the way to the cliff-face. He caught sight of something glowing on top of the hill. Well, that'd be the meteorite.

He gave the cliff a hard look again. _So… it's pretty tall huh? Well, only one thing to do then._ He stretched out his shoulders, and then carefully put his hands and feet into the crags of the wall. Once he had felt he had gotten a good hold on it, he began to climb upwards, ever upwards. It was quite easy once he had found his old familiar rhythm. After all, it wasn't the first time he had climbed here before. The view from the top was simply too amazing to turn down. From up there, he could see all of Onett, and, if he really strained his sight, he thought he could catch glimpses of places as far as Threed.

Of course, there was a rock path up to the top just a few minutes walk away, but Ness wasn't the kind of person to use shortcuts like that. Where would be the fun in walking the same path everyone else took, and had taken for many years? It would always be the same old path, there wasn't even a possibility of failure, no challenge at all, no fun to be had. But climbing the mountain himself? Climbing the steep hillside, lashing out blindly for the next handhold, fighting against gravity, desperately trying to keep his grip on the slick rock surface, coated with morning dew… and that feeling of perfect satisfaction that came with getting past all that! Now **that** was Ness' idea of fun!

He reached the top of the cliff, vaulting himself onto the ledge and clutching at his chest, feeling it go up and down quickly as he gasped for air breathlessly. The warm feeling of making it all the way up filled him, and he lay for a few moments, just soaking it all in, almost forgetting the meteorite. It was a while before he realized that he wasn't alone.

He moved his head to the side to see a couple of police officers surrounding a chubby, freckled boy who looked around Ness' age. The officers looked quite flustered dealing with the chubby boy, who was trying doggedly to get past. The boy was snub-nosed, wore a simple white shirt with blue overalls, and had blonde hair that covered both of his eyes so completely it was a wonder he could even see. His skin was white as paste, and his legs were so stubby that you couldn't be blamed for missing them, hidden as they were in under all his fat. He was hollering at the policemen for something or other, but Ness couldn't tell what.

However, Ness recognized the boy at once. "Hey, Porky!" Ness called, raising one hand to wave without actually getting up from his resting place.

"It's Pokey!" Pokey Minch corrected automatically, suddenly turning to yell at Ness instead. "How many times must I tell y- ah, Ness." Pokey gasped as he realized the boy was there. His pug nose twitched at the sight of Ness, but he didn't make much of it. "When did you…?"

"Sometime between forever and just now," Ness replied, grinning his friend. Pokey was Ness's best friend in the world. Heck, Pokey was just about the only friend Ness had, probably due to unfortunate fact that accidents tended to happen around Ness. When Ness got mad, things broke. Pokey was just about the only person who'd back up Ness' claims later, that he hadn't even touched the object in question, and Ness thought the world of him for it. "I climbed up a few seconds ago," Ness finished, "And that's neither now nor never."

Pokey stared at Ness for a second, then he gave one of his buck-toothed smiles. "Of course," he said calmly. Pokey was also one of the only people who could translate what Ness said when he got to his most eccentric.

A policeman gave a whoop at the sight of Ness. "Never thought I'd say this regarding you, Ness, but thank God!" he cried, "Please do something about Porky, he's been driving us nuts all night. You are friends right?"

"It's Pokey," Pokey snapped.

"The best!" Ness confirmed. He switched his gaze to Pokey, "So, Porky, ready to go home? I've got this awesome shortcut I found just the other day, it's-"

"Um… Listen, Ness," Pokey said, looking slightly uncomfortable. Ness wondered what the matter was, and went silent to listen.

"You have no idea how much it hurts to say this but… I can't have you rubberneckin' out here," said the rubbernecker, "I know how much you love… investigating stuff like this, but you're getting in the cops'- whoops, I mean the officer's way!" Pokey finished strong, and Ness immediately realized how inconsiderate he'd been.

Ness looked crestfallen, "R-Really? Shoot, I didn't know I was getting in anyone's way…"

Pokey smirked. "It's OK, I forgive you. I'll tell you what, tomorrow you only have to do half my chores for the day, OK? You can go home now."

"Sounds great!" Ness exclaimed. Then he furrowed his brow. He had a feeling he was forgetting something, something quite important.

"Can you say "gullible"?" a policeman asked incredulously, watching the scene unfold.

Suddenly, Ness remembered. "Ah… But Porky, I was sort of planning to go check out the meteorite…"

"Ness, Ness, Ness…" Pokey clicked his tongue, "You have nothing to worry about… Tell you what, tomorrow, I, POKEY, will tell you all there is to know about the strange meteorite, OK?"

"P-Porky…" Ness was on the verge of tearing up, and gingerly he wiped his eyes. "You didn't have to do all that for me…"

"He's not! We were just telling him to go home because he wouldn't shut up about the meteor anyways! He's clearly doing it for himself!" the cop exploded.

"Shush, Ness. No tears. I'll be fine here, but you're bugging the officers. Now go on back…" Pokey said gently, and Ness nodded. Without a moment of hesitation, Ness rolled over, and off the ledge.

"Thank you!" Ness called out, falling back down to earth, "I won't ever forget this!"

A few minutes later, Ness had to explain to his Mom exactly why he was back so fast, and was cut and bruised all over. Ness smiled in response and told her about Pokey.

Mom groaned in exasperation.


	3. Chapter 2: Nothing I Can Do

**LATER THAT NIGHT…**

"Spider-man, Spider-man…" Ness turned the pages of his comic book, snug under the covers of his bed. Since coming home, he hadn't been able to get back to sleep. And he had tried. He had tried everything from glasses of milk to counting sheep to black magic to catch some Z's, but none of it had been any good. Thoughts of the meteor kept him up, so eventually he contented himself with reading comics with his flashlight.

"Friendly neighborhood Spider-… Who?" Ness looked up from his comic as a loud knock shocked him back to reality. He blinked sleepily as the knocking continued. And such an obnoxious knock! The melody was uneven, it was sometimes so loud it shook Ness to his bones, and then it would be as quiet as a mosquitos buzz. It was the knocking equivalent of a drunk man's lullaby, and it annoyed Ness greatly.

He tried to get up to see what the ruckus was about, but laziness washed over him and he just fell back into bed. _Someone'll get it eventually…_ He thought, letting his eyes flutter shut.

One more knock.

"OK, that's it!" growled Ness. It had finally gotten to him, and within moments he was by the door. King jumped, and he was made aware of his presence.

 _Bloody vets! There are cheetahs who_ _ **wish**_ _they could run that fast!_ King exclaimed, but Ness ignored him and went to the door, still gritting his teeth at the intermittent knocking.

"Alright! Who the heck is-"

"Ness!" With nary a warning the door opened of its own accord. Any thoughts Ness might've had at the identity of the door knocker were soon replaced with others, such as _What the?_ , _Stupid door!_ , and _Argh! My whole face is pain!_

"Oh, sorry…" a familiar voice snickered. The pain quickly faded from Ness as he recognized the voice, and he was all smiles.

"Porky!"

"It's Poke-," Pokey started to correct him, but evidently thought better of it and just went on, "Ah whatever. Just… Just listen to what I've got to say."

While he said this, Pokey had made himself comfortable. Without waiting for Ness' or even King's say so he flopped onto the residence's sole couch and laid back. "Oh, and can you also get me a lemonade, buddy? I'm parched."

"Got it!" Ness chirped, and a short while later he had the drink. Pokey accepted it without even a word of thanks.

After he had drank his fill, Pokey got back on track. Mom had woken up and was in the room at that point, but she had taken one look at Pokey being served drinks and decided to stay out of whatever was happening.

"Well, when I was taking Picky to the place where the meteor had landed… Oh! Good evening ma'am. You're looking lovely as usual," snickered Pokey. Ness apparently missed the sarcasm, as his enthusiasm seemed not to have waned a bit, though his Mom frowned as Pokey went on.

"Anyways, as I was saying, the police that were guarding the meteorite left suddenly, to deal with the Sharks," Pokey fidgeted a little in his seat, "You know the Sharks, they're the local rouffians, and they were really going wild. I looked after the cop- I mean police for one second, and when I turned back around, I noticed that Picky was gone!" he let out a loud, dramatic sob for effect, and the smile faded off of Ness' face.

"Not Perky!" Ness gasped aloud at the thought. "Pinky's too small to be out by himself, not without his older brother! And the Sharks are out…" he looked grim.

He knew full well how violent the Sharks tended to get. For some reason, they seemed to always pick on him, to the point where Ness couldn't even walk through downtown for more than an hour at a time before the Sharks got word that he'd been dumb enough to come back again. But Ness was tough, he could handle it. But Pokey was a different matter, and Picky was definitely an entirely different matter.

"If Pikachu's out alone now…" Ness left the thought unfinished.

"'Pikachu'?" he shook his head, not letting himself be pulled off topic by Ness'… Nessing. "Never mind. I blame the cops for this one… it was certainly not my fault at all. And when dad gets back, I know I'm gonna get it…"

"Ness," he looked at him with what might've been pleading eyes… or at least he assumed that was what Pokey was doing. He couldn't see his friend's eyes past his hair. "You're my bestest friend. Won't you help me find Pika-" he coughed, "…Picky?"

As if the question needed asking! Ness nodded, resolve apparent. "Yeah!"

"OK, good buddy!" said Pokey, quite pleased. He had gotten what he wanted. "Let's blow this popsicle stand… Oh. But before we go, how about you say goodbye to your mom? Don't you agree ma'am?"

Ness' Mom blinked as he turned to her. "Who? Me?" She asked, apparently surprised she was even getting a say in this. "Um… let's see… the Sharks are out… so at least take King with you. I know he's unreliable, but-"

"OK then!" Ness turned to poor old King, who really just wanted to be left alone, and leaned down to pet him. "We're gonna fight Sharks," he informed him, "And maybe see the meteor up close too, if we're lucky!"

King gave a start of alarm. _Oh no_.

"Relax, King! If everything goes right, you'll only be hurt a little!"

 _I'd rather not get hurt at all,_ King whimpered, getting to his feet anyways, _But I guess I have no choice do I?_ Even King knew how pointless it was to argue with Ness when his mind was made up. It was actually pretty depressing, as he was the only person he could possibly argue with, by virtue of being the only person who could hear him. The kicker was, the boy didn't even seem to notice the oddity, and talked to animals regularly like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"No choice at all!" Ness confirmed, and turned to his Mother again. "OK, King said yes. I'll be going then."

"Wait!" Mom called as Ness already began for the door. He turned around again. "What?"

She hugged him suddenly, and he froze, unsure how to react. "Uh… if it's about taking a weapon other than my fists… I 'borrowed' the cracked bat from Tracy's room on the way down here. It's in my backpack. I don't think she'll be too mad…"

Mom sniffed, and Ness realized that tears were flowing down her face. "M-Mom?" What had sparked this? It wasn't like he was going to be gone for that long!

"W-What's wrong?" he was visibly uncomfortable, squirming to get free.

"Nothing's wrong, dear. It's just…" she wiped the tears from her eyes, and took a long look at her child's blushing face. Her voice was soft and quiet, but rose in volume and power as she went on, "You're a courageous, strong boy Ness. It doesn't matter what anyone says… You're my very own, natural born fighter. You'll… You'll go far in life, won't you?"

"H-Huh?"

"Won't you?!"

He blinked. "Y-Yes'm."

"Good… Ness, Remember to 'Go for it'! Never let anything get in your way, no matter how tough it gets! No crying…" Mom sniffed, "Until the end, OK?"

Ness nodded mutely.

Mom finally let go, "That's my boy… but before you go… you've got to change out of your jammies, you know?"

"I did," Ness muttered, free at last from his Mother's grip, "I never put my jammies back on actually."

She gave a sad smile. "Of course you didn't, sweetie. Good luck out there!"

Ness walked over to Pokey, who hadn't moved an inch from his spot on the couch. "Ready to go then?"

"Yeah, took you long enough. 20 paragraphs…" Pokey scoffed, "Does it really take that long to say goodbye? Alright, let's get going. You go out in front, and I'll follow at a safe distance, OK?"

"Right-O!" Ness said, already opening the door and stepping out into the darkness. He looked back over his shoulder as Pokey and King followed, and waved one last goodbye to his Mother. Then the door was shut, and they were on their way into the unknown.

* * *

The trip to the Meteorite was a short one, and pretty uneventful. In Ness' perspective, it was outright disappointing, if not depressing.

First of all, though he had been assigned to the front, Ness still couldn't lead the party wherever he pleased. No, as soon as he had even gotten near the cliff he had climbed up last time, Pokey threw a fit. Apparently, 'normal' people took the safe roadways and paths to get where they were going. They did not purposefully seek out the steepest part of the mountain and start climbing up with their bare hands. He refused to move, so Ness was forced to walk the beaten path.

As if that wasn't bad enough, there was no one out there! The huge crowd that had been in front of the house maybe an hour or so ago had disappeared entirely. Even the police officers who had been swarming the site earlier had vanished, though since Pokey had said beforehand that they'd all gone to fight the Sharks, he was more forgiving of their absence. What he could not forgive, however, was that the Sharks hadn't even bothered to show up! Because of this, they were forced to travel in silence and isolation through most of the night.

Unfortunately, Pokey and King didn't want to talk at all, so after a few attempts at starting a conversation, he was bored out of his mind with no conversation for almost the whole journey.

Of course, there was one time where Ness was able to have a conversation with someone that night, and perhaps if he'd been able to utter a word past, "Hello," it would've saved the journey for him. The lone man he had seen on the hike had been quite promising, and Ness' eyes immediately brightened as he recognized him.

"Old man Lier!" he had called out, waving to catch his attention.

Lier X. Agerate jerked his head upwards, catching Ness' eye as he did so. He was just about unmistakable, especially with the moon as almost full as it was. He wore a blue checkered shirt with black pants, and wore dark sunglasses even in the dead of night. Nobody had ever seen him without them. Not only that, but he had the worst case of hobo stubble a man could have, and carried a pick-axe at his side tonight. In short, especially for it being as late as it was, he looked like the most suspicious, up-to-no-good man in Onett. That was why he and Ness got along so well. Even though a child could tell that 99% of whatever Lier said was false, it never failed to fascinate Ness whenever this guy showed his face. And when he began talking about his latest tales for Ness… well he would've listened for hours.

However tonight, Lier just flashed a guilty, shocked look at him, and immediately ran away. Ness was crushed.

"Cheer up, maybe he'll talk to you tomorrow," Pokey assured.

Ness cheered up ridiculously fast, and they were on their way again. But in no time Ness was bored out of his mind again, as not a word was said afterwards.

However all things must come to an end, and boring trips are no exceptions. This trip had a destination, and it was focusing on that goal that kept him going, even as the hours dragged on. That goal that had brought him out here in the first place, that absolutely imperative mission they all shared. That goal was… to finally see the meteorite that had landed for himself! And yes, eventually, they made it to the crash site, and Ness' heart pounded with excitement as they neared the top of the hill. This was the gold at the end of the rainbow, the treasure at the end of the map, the light at the end of the tunnel, the One Piece at the end of the Grand Line! Now that what he sought was right in front of him, his excitement couldn't be stopped!

It was stopped immediately.

The hilltop was still just as green as it always was, not a blade of grass seemed touched or torched by the space rock that had crashed here. The blazing fires that had lit up the hilltop from below just a few hours ago had almost completely gone out, and it wasn't even all smoky near the crash site. In fact, the crash site itself was barely two meters across, the pitiful meteor sticking out of the ground, barely shorter than Ness' head. It glowed softly, a pale orange, with small fires in the area immediately around it. A gray film covered half of it though. The sound of something whirring that had been prevalent before was almost completely gone, but Ness couldn't even go and touch the meteorite to inspect it closer for himself. But the meteorite was too hot for him to even get close to, so even though he was so close to the meteor, the flames kept him just far enough to bore him! He could barely believe it, but the meteor that had crashed in Onett was just as boring as Onett itself.

Ness was unspeakably disappointed, and upon his inspection of the meteor, went off to sulk behind the single tree on the hilltop. _Not even the tree is scorched. Not even the stupid tree._

He looked off to his side, "Well, this was a bust, eh King?" He blinked. He was addressing the air now, and there wasn't a single dog in sight. "K-King?" Ness said, confused now.

Pokey coughed. "Uh… actually King left a while ago. Ran away with his tail between his legs as soon as he saw the meteor. I thought you had noticed."

"King left?! Why?! We didn't even get to **do** anything and he already ran scared!" he was in a full rage now, the betrayal of King sending him over the edge. The wind started to pick up, getting to the point where even the tree he sat under started to bend. Pokey took a cautious step backward. Ness was getting mad. Things were going to start breaking, fast.

Pokey looked somewhere to Ness' side, gasped and pointed. "Hey, is that Picky?"

"Really?" the winds instantly died back down, and he looked at where Pokey was pointing. To his surprise, he saw Picky, almost the mirror image of Pokey, just a few feet from where he himself was standing! He looked no worse for the wear, and was actually taking a snooze on the other side of the tree, though he was just then waking up.

"Wha-what?" Picky yawned and wiped the sleep from his eyes, "Oh? Ness? What are you doing here?"

"You're alive!" Picky had been found at last! Ness was on the verge of celebrating. "We all thought you got eaten by the Sharks, Perry!"

"The Sharks? I didn't even run into- wait, Perry?" he gave Ness a withering look, "Last week it was Penny, the week before that Pippin, and just yesterday, Pablo… You do this on purpose don't you?"

Ness just smiled. Picky sighed, "Ah well… wait, Pokey? You're here too?"

"Why, of course. After all, as the older brother I-"

"I was looking all over the place for you! What's wrong with you?" Picky was absolutely furious, "Captain Strong just saw us up here and yelled once at us to get down, and you got so scared you jumped off a cliff?! You even left me behind!"

"Huh? I thought you got separated from Picky 'cause the police came and-"

"Don't believe a word big brother says," the little one said, "This is how he tricks you into carrying him to school! But… I guess it's good that he's OK after that fall." His rage subsided, and he looked once again at Ness, "Alright, so we're going home now? I'll follow at the back, and keep an eye on Pokey… Geez, sometimes I wonder which one of us is the real big brother!"

Ness was surprised for a second, but the next he was laughing, "Oh I see! Porky, You wanted me to come with you to make sure Piggy was safe, but thought I wouldn't come if I heard Captain Strong was there! There was no need to worry though, if you ever needed help, I'd be there in a-"

"Ness… behind you…" Pokey whispered suddenly, with such urgency in his voice that Ness couldn't help but pause. He looked scared, really scared. Ness blinked twice, "Huh? Behind me?" and he began to turn around.

He never made it all the way.

Something hard and metallic crashed into the side of his face before he was even halfway around. He was sent flying, and slammed into the flaming meteorite behind. He fell to the ground coughing and choking on the ashes that shot up.

Ness heard the Minch brothers screaming as whatever had blindsided him turned on them. _Porky! Picky!_ Though black spots dotted his vision, Ness didn't hesitate for a second. He reached into his backpack and pulled out his cracked bat. His whole body ached with the effort of standing up. It would have to suck it up. He had to run. He had to fight now!

With a wild roar, Ness charged forward. Vaguely, he could see a human-like shape lifting Pokey off the ground with an extra-long arm. Picky was off crying to the side, and Pokey was begging for his life, apologizing profusely for anything and everything he could've ever done to the man.

As for the man himself, he was a strange sight. His entire body was a shining silver, and his arms stretched out whenever and however they pleased. He had a variety of buttons on his chest, like a machine, and a whirring noise was made everytime he moved. Yet solid and mechanical like a machine this thing wasn't. As Ness watched, Picky tried to punch it feebly, only to see his fist go right through the man's leg. The silvery flesh of the man splattered all over the place, like it was made of liquid instead of metal. The wound on the man closed up so quick it looked like the attack hadn't even happened.

Ness grit his teeth. He leapt off the ground and brought his bat back as far as he could go, and let loose. "I'll beat the tar out of you!" he yelled, feeling the blow connect.

However, the sound wasn't at all what he was expecting. Instead of a _whack!_ or a _wham!_ the sound was that of hitting the side of a car. A dull clang. His eyes widened as the man turned his head a full 360 degrees to meet his eyes. He noticed that the man didn't have any eyes, just a black visor where there should've been.

The visor glowed a deep blue. Suddenly, an invisible force slammed into Ness. He coughed as the wind was knocked out of him, mind racing as he realized he had taken the hardest blow he had ever felt in his life from an enemy who hadn't even moved. The man's silvery, long arm became like a whip, raced towards him and grabbed him by the leg, crushing it hard in his vicelike grip. A horrible crack split the air as the bone gave way. Before he could even opened his mouth to scream, Ness was lifted up high above the tree on the hill and brought down hard. Splinters rained down everywhere as the tree was split in two with Ness' body.

"Ness!" Picky cried, unable to anything but watch.

The enemy slammed his face into the ground so hard the ground broke. Blackness began closing in all around in Ness' vision, and he dimly felt the tendril release his useless leg at last.

Ness had never hurt as bad before in his life. Even the Sharks were preferable to this! His bad leg screamed out at him, but try as he might, Ness couldn't scream himself. In his mouth all he could taste was blood, and gashes and scratches stung all over his body. Splinters had no doubt punctured him in all kinds of places as well, he couldn't even move anymore.

 _Am I… Am I gonna die? He thought as he lay there. S-Shoot… I don't even know who did me in. No… what did me in. No way that thing was human._

Dimly, he noticed Pokey was nowhere to be found. Ness couldn't blame him. _Darn it! I'm so useless! Maybe I should just lie here and die._ He was getting dizzier and dizzier as he lost more and more blood. His vision was darkening. _Yeah… just lie here… and die…_

" **Help!** " Picky's scream doubled in volume. There was a mechanical whir, and a loud crack. The screaming ceased.

 _Sorry Picky… There's just nothing I can do…_

"Help…" Picky called out again, but in a small whisper this time. Out of the corner of his eye, Ness could see the man lift up one of his arms again. It stretched out far over the mountain, and then became a great blade, it's silver edge glistening in the moonlight.

 _Nothing I can do…_

A mysterious mist swirled around it, and Ness could feel it's otherworldly power even from where he lay, it was like the weight of the planet was crushing the air out of his lungs. The man's visor glowed blue yet again.

 _Nothing I-_

Picky whimpered. The blade came rushing down through the air. Blood flew through the air.

It was Ness'.

Ness gritted his teeth as his blood trickled down the hands that had stopped the blade. His eyes stared a challenge to the man of the stars, he would not give in an inch.

"There's nothing…" he growled, taking one step forward, pushing the blade back. The man had the decency to look surprised. Ness was seeing red. "There's nothing I can do when I see my friend's hurt in front of me but…"

The ground underneath Ness erupted, as an aura of violent red blazed up around him. The wounds on his body started to heal, until there wasn't even a scar left. His eyes had turned from brown to blood red. " **Make the person who hurt them pay!** "

The blade shattered in his grip. Ness' aura doubled in size.

"That's just the words I was waiting to hear," buzzed a voice in the shadows.


	4. Chapter 3: Monsters

**THE BATTLE RAGES ON**

 **ONE HOUR UNTIL DAWN**

Ness' comeback didn't even last 5 seconds. Actually, whether or not a comeback had ever happened is up for debate. Instantly everything had gone downhill, hit a tank truck, and exploded.

For one thing, freaky red auras apparently didn't last too long. Barely a second after it had doubled in size, his aura disappeared entirely. Poof. There wasn't even a wisp of it left, and what power had filled Ness a moment before had vanished with it.

Secondly, healing as fast as he did was unfortunately not free. Patching himself up that fast made Ness feel like he had been running several marathons, and even if the wounds had closed, the pain hadn't faded even a bit. He doubted he could take a single step from where he stood, despite the fact that his leg was no longer broken.

The situation wasn't done rocketing downhill yet. The enemy, with its blade/arm/tentacle-thing broken, disappeared into thin air soon after. Yet it wasn't gone for long. In no time it had reappeared a short distance away, putting its hands on its hips and puffing its chest out proudly, almost mockingly. Ness' heart sank as he noticed that it had both of its arms. A complete no sell. Ness had an inkling that the now glowing white visor was probably not just for show.

Behind him, he heard scrabbling in the dirt as Picky quickly retreated a safe distance. That distance was the whole of the hill, and he slid down the side towards his house in a mad dash to get out of there. Well, at least Ness didn't have to worry about him anymore. It was just him and the monster now.

As if on cue, the metal man began his attack again. The visor flashed once, and Ness felt something invisible and hot whizz past his face. The ground directly behind him rumbled, and exploded.

He went hurtling forward with the force of it, and bewildered as he was, was in no way prepared for the second strike. A mechanical limb flew out at him, faster than it had ever been, and slammed him against the ground so hard he bounced. Suddenly he sensed another invisible blow incoming, though he had no idea how he knew. He grit his teeth in preparation, and the pain came.

A force yet unseen smashed into his ribcage and sent Ness flying like a tennis ball served by a gorilla. He crashed down at the edge of the cliff. He neither knew nor cared how may ribs might've been broken. It hurt either way.

The metal man's visor flared up again. A wild instinct warned him of another blow unseen. Another attack? Already? Ness thought distantly, _Shoot… It wasn't supposed to be this way. I made the speech and everything… it was supposed to make me win darn it! …The power of friendship is dead isn't it?_

 _Who am I kidding? I didn't even like Pickles that much anyways… Ah well, at least I got to say something cool before I died._ He smiled. The visor's white glow grew ever brighter. _Yeah, it was pretty cool wasn't it?_

 _I'll say._

Ness' eyes widened. He didn't say that! He didn't even think that! _What the hey?!_

But he had little time to ponder the new voice, as he felt the next blast fire off towards him. Feebly, he put up a hand in front of his face to stop it. Of course it wouldn't work. With the way the score was now, 3 invisi-hits to 0 blocks, nothing would stop it now.

It was stopped immediately.

From nowhere, a loud buzzing sound filled the air. A bunch of things happened at once then. When the attack was mere feet in front of him, the fireball spontaneously exploded. The gray man emitted a strange noise like a piano being dropped. Then it exploded into silver goo itself! Ness blinked and saw that a flaming, orange shield had materialized in front of him, could see it clearly for half a second before it faded. Even his exhaustion, the pain of the broken ribs, had gone away completely!

"PSI Shield Epsilon," a voice, droning like some strange machine, buzzed from everywhere and nowhere at once. He strained his eyes at where he thought the voice had come from, but to no avail. Nothing was there.

The voice sounded again. "Whew, cut that one a little close… For the record, I would've interfered earlier, Ness, but the situation looked almost built to make your PSI realize. And it did! Though I didn't think you'd use it all up so fast, but you're a novice so I suppose that's to be expected."

He finally got a lock on the voice's origin. He had to take three long looks at it to fully comprehend it; the first to see the source in question, the second to confirm what he saw, and the third to believe it.

Before him floated a miniscule, black insect that was just barely visible for its smallness. Its eyes were a sleek orange, and the orange lines going down the length of its black body reminded Ness of a reverse tiger. Its furious flapping however, made him think of a honey bee, and with some effort he held back the mad desire to swat it.

"A bee I am?" the thing cut into his thoughts, surprising Ness, "Not. No. Nope. Never was." It started to pause after every word oddly, like a robot trying to imitate English.

It tilted its head. "Huh, that was weird. Excuse me, I'm not used to this body yet, and we we're still ironing out a few-" the eyes in its head flashed once, and it stopped. "For the love of… that guy doesn't give up easily does he? Typical Starman Jr…. Boy, if you like living, do what I say."

Before Ness could even begin to form the questions that came to mind, the not-a-bee gave its first order. "Jump!"

No sooner than he left the ground, it erupted in silver spikes right where he had been standing. The spikes quickly retracted back under as he landed a short distance away. Ness tried to catch his breath. The second order came.

"Run for the crater!"

Adrenaline gave Ness strength. He ran to the meteorite just as a pillar of ice bigger than he was came crashing down where he had been standing. If he had left a moment later, he would've been split right down the middle.

Behind him he could hear the sound of metal bashing against metal. He turned back to see the silver man once again, its limbs moving almost faster than he could see as it parried blows from the bug, who returned the blows with charge after charge as its body glowed with orange flame.

Ness could barely believe it, the sheer speed at which the combatants fought was nothing compared to what had transpired before. The Starman Jr.'s efforts against him seemed almost lazy compared to now, and even the bee looked like it could tear him to shreds if it so wished. It was clear, he was totally and hopelessly outclassed here. That feeling of helplessness he had viewing this battle of monsters… was the farthest from bored he could get!

He watched with fascination as the battle reached a fever pitch. The Starman Jr. spoke for the first time, with a voice that belonged in a sci-fi B movie.

"It's been a long time, 'Buzz-Buzz'," it said, taking yet another swipe at the bee.

"'Buzz-Buzz'? Was that supposed to be an insult or something?" Buzz-Buzz casually commented, parrying a particularly nasty blow with a scythe-like tentacle, "But I didn't think it had been that long… but it looks like it has been long enough that you forgot your fear of me!"

The two fighters took to air. "You've been fairly successful at foiling Master Giygas' plans," said the Starman.

"I'd be disappointed otherwise."

"But…" Jr. interjected, "Buzz-Buzz, you must now surrender. You're no longer a hero," It landed a blow on Buzz-Buzz then, knocking the bee off balance in the air.

"But just…" It fired two fireballs in an instant. They both connected, and the sky lit up.

"A useless…" one hard smack launched the bee into the meteor. He bounced back up into the air as the Starman Jr. appeared behind him, readying another blow. Buzz-Buzz was helpless.

" **Insect!** " Jr. finished, swatting Buzz-Buzz into the ground with a sizable crash for one so small. It wasn't done yet though, and it flew back into the air before coming down fast.

"I'll stomp you hard!" it declared.

"… You are right. I'm no hero, especially not now. This body… it's so weak I can barely believe it," he feebly beat his wings as the Starman Jr. closed in for the kill. Ness held his breath. "Yeah, the way I used to be, I would've been able to dismantle you in one second. But the way I am now…

"It took **15**. " Suddenly, a dangerous aura enveloped the mountain top, and the bee's body began to glow an even brighter orange than it had before. Buzz-Buzz vanished.

Too late, the Starman Jr. realized its mistake and tried to pull back.

There was a flash of orange, and then there was a hole in the silver man's chest. On the other side of it, the miniature Buzz-Buzz held a black stone about the size of a baseball.

"Man, if I had my old body, I wouldn't have had to wait for your guard to go down… it would've been a lot easier to get to your core, the PSI Stone.

"Whew! Worked out in the end though! I was taking a big chance there…" He dropped it, and it shattered against the ground. The Starman Jr.'s visor dimmed, and finally the light from inside it vanished altogether.

"I'll explain everything to you later… just give me a second to rest OK?"

Not sure what else to do, Ness started clapping.

* * *

"I apologize, I haven't explained anything have I? No doubt you're dying for answers at this point… the reason the strange meteorite crashed down so close to your house, why the Starman attacked you, how I know your name, and… who you are," Buzz-Buzz finally said.

He had decided to bring up the topic himself. It had been 45 whole minutes since the Starman's defeat, and Ness hadn't said a word. Instead he had begun walking back downhill, leisurely going after the stray Pokey and Picky and not giving Buzz-Buzz's presence any sort of recognition whatsoever. Even now, he still didn't give him any sort of response.

Buzz-Buzz pressed on. "This might be a bit hard to grasp for you, but-"

"Not really," Ness cut him off, "Do you think I can shoot fire? That'd be cool… or hot, or whatever."

Buzz-Buzz was shocked. The tone of his voice was ambivalent! He sounded like he didn't care, like he was only mildly interested in it all!

"I don't know about that…" he addressed the question directly, hoping to catch his interest again, "But, listen. Ahem! The enemy we fought was called Starman Jr. He came from 10 years in the future to kill me. Yes, you heard correctly… It's not so odd, as I am from 10 years in the future myself…"

"Huh. Neat."

"Did I mention I'm a robot? I mean, my brain was transplanted into a robot's body."

"'Kay."

"Why do you sound so bored?!" Buzz-Buzz snapped. Nothing was getting through to this guy! "I'd heard you lived for things like this! Where's the excitement, the wonder, **anything?!** "

The boy gave him a long look. "I dunno. I was interested earlier, but you were all 'I'll explain it all later' and stuff. Then you rested for the longest time before getting up, and by then the hype was sort of dead…" He nodded to himself affirmatively, "Yeah, that's what happened. In other words, it was all your fault. You really are a useless insect huh 'Buzz-Buzz'?"

"Enough of that! Listen, I've come from 10 whole years in the future to give you, an important message, so the least you can do is hear me out!"

"OK."

"Good," Buzz-Buzz sighed. He had begun to realize that the hardest part of his job had just begun. He had known long before of Ness', "Unique" temperament, but he had never imagined that it would be this bad! He tried to look on the bright side. _At the very least, he got over the shock quickly. Yes… he's adaptable, and that's exactly the kind of personality he needs. He is absolutely perfect for the journey ahead,_ he started to relax, _Yes… Flawless. Peerless. A-OK._

He took a deep breath. "As I was saying, I came from the future with my time machine… though it's not in the best shape now: it's the smoldering 'meteorite' on the hilltop. In the future, all is devastation… Giygas, the universal cosmic destroyer, sent all to the horror of the eternal darkness…

"Now, where I am from, there is a well-known legend that has been handed down from ancient times…"

He checked that his audience was still listening. The boy looked thoroughly absorbed.

" _' When the chosen boy reaches the point, he will find the light._

" _The passing of time will shatter the nightmare rock and will reveal the path of light. '_ That's what it says," he continued, "You see, it is my opinion that you are that boy, Ness."

Without warning, Ness stopped in his tracks, and his eyes sparkled. He started grinning widely, and Buzz-Buzz sighed with relief. "Finally, I've got you interested! The legends from ancient times tell of three boys and a girl who defeat Giygas. If you start to confront the enemy immediately you may have time-"

"Porky! You made it home!" he called out. Pokey turned around. He had been caught right on the verge of entering his home.

He looked quite surprised to see him. "Ness? Y-You mean you're still alive?!"

He coughed. "I mean… O-Of course! I never doubted you for a second… Uh… we don't have to talk about it here…" Pokey laughed a hollow laugh and slowly reached for the doorknob.

"Oh, that's a great idea! I was just thinking I'd go to your place actually, to see if Half-Pint had got there already," Ness smiled, "Alrightee! That's settled, so let's go in!"

"Um, hello? I wasn't done actually…" Buzz-Buzz's protest fell on deaf ears. Ness was already inside the house, and reluctantly he followed.

The first words he heard was, "Don't come in! It's a trap!" Buzz-Buzz looked up to see that right in front of them was a hefty blonde man in a suit, none other than Aloysius Minch himself, the Minch brothers' father. He did not look pleased. Behind him, Picky looked almost more terrified than he did during the Starman Jr. attack.

"So… not only Picky, but you as well had left the house, after I explicitly told you dolts to watch it?" Mr. Minch growled at his son, before noticing Ness in the doorway. "Oh, it's you… You're that yokel who lives next door are you not? Alec, was it?"

"Ness," he reminded, "Don't worry, you'll remember it one of these days! Or die trying."

"Yes, yes…" Mr. Minch gave the fakest smile Buzz-Buzz had ever seen in his life, "I'm really sorry that my kids troubled you so much… Mr… McSpanky?"

"McTracy."

"Fair enough," he sighed. During this whole conversation, Pokey and Picky had been slowly edging upstairs, painstaking avoiding making any noises whatsoever that would alert their father. Buzz-Buzz reasoned that the entire reason Ness had been invited into the house was as a diversion to escape trouble. He applauded them for their strategy.

However, they were noticed by their father anyways. "Both of you are really going to get it now!" Mr. Minch roared. The boys squeaked and made a break for it upstairs while he gave chase. From upstairs, a loud wailing was heard, as well as the sound of several smacks with a belt. Buzz-Buzz watched them sprint upstairs and sighed sympathetically. He barely noticed that Ness had already turned around and was heading out.

He did though. "Huh? Hey, wait up!" he called as he flew after him. To be honest, he was relieved that this whole ordeal was over. Now he could finally get back to the important stuff, with no more distractions.

He never knew what hit him.

Suddenly, a shadow came across his vision, and he heard a terrible shriek as something massive whistled in the air towards him. His vision broke into static at the impact, and the next thing he knew he was on the floor. He heard Ness gasp faintly, but the instant he turned his head to see his attacker his vision was filled again with a great, red, high-heeled shoe. The enemy of all bugs.

The heel of the shoe dug into him, grinding Buzz-Buzz against the ground. Another shriek was heard. " **YEEK!** I think it's a dung beetle!" Mrs. Minch screamed, bringing her leg up for another stomp.

"No, wait!" Buzz-Buzz screamed back, but she had already come down again. He felt the joints of his body give way, and legs started to fall off. One of his robotic eyes had fallen out. _How in the world is she doing this much damage to me?! Not even the Starman could-_

Another stomp. More nuts and bolts fell out of place, and his vision went red as alerts started to flash across his HUD. "Alert! Critical damage has been inflicted! Extract and regroup!" it read.

"I'll smash your guts out!" Mrs. Minch yelled again, jumping into the air. Buzz-Buzz yelled out as loud as he could as he realized that the crazy woman was trying to perform an Atomic Elbow Drop on him.

 ** _OH MY GOD-!_**

The HUD faded away as the impact was felt. Buzz-Buzz knew without a doubt that now, all his systems were beyond repair. His life-support systems had been scattered to the winds… he only had maybe a minute or so left in this world.

Mrs. Minch got up and started panting exhaustedly. "Phew… I think I got it… Huh? Ness? You're still here? You really should be leaving you know."

Ness looked annoyed. "Just a moment."

He knelt at Buzz-Buzz's side. "Are you dead? My bad, I had no idea Porky's mom watched pro-wrestling. Good thing she's bad at it," he said flatly.

With considerable effort, Buzz-Buzz tried to look him straight in the eye. However, he couldn't bring himself to look above Ness' neck, any further movement was almost impossible.

"I was… much weaker than I thought…" he gasped with pain, "I'm… sorry Ness… I won't be going any further than this…" Blackness rimmed his vision, and at this point he knew no power of his could save him now. Getting every word out was a trial, yet he had to. I can't afford to die yet… he grit his teeth and forced his consciousness to stay. He had to get the message across, or else all of this, all he had suffered through, all his friends' hopes and dreams would've been for nothing.

"I'm fading fast… Ness… stay by my side, OK? And listen to my final words…"

Ness said nothing.

"The power within you… the power that has guarded you all this time is known as PSI… it is an awesome power, but hard to control without the proper guidance. I only regret I won't be there to teach you myself… I saw you, you know. You have the potential to become a PSI user, a Psychic, stronger than anyone before or since…

"Listen… to defeat Giygas… that power of yours, that PSI, must unite with that of the Earth itself… The Earth will then channel your power and multiply it many times, multiply the power of its chosen Guardian…" It was getting colder. Buzz-Buzz felt Ness' presence next to him, but was not sure if he was listening. He hoped he was. How desperately he hoped. Yet, some alarm kept going off in his head. Something was off. Yet… he had to continue!

"If you are to do this, you must know that there are eight points that you must visit… You must make these places your own… Each of these are 'Your Sanctuary'. The power of the Earth is strong in them…"

Ness didn't say anything. Buzz-Buzz fought to calm the vague panic he felt.

"One of them is near Onett. It is called 'Giant Step'." Ness took in a breath at that. Buzz-Buzz wished he could smile, but he was still fading… fading…

"Before I pass on, I want to give you something… though I regret that to retrieve it you will have to trek back to the meteorite… I'm sorry, I had planned to give it to you later, but it looks like the time is a luxury denied to us…

"It is called the Sound Stone. You can record the melodies from the eight 'Your Sanctuary' locations into the stone… you will need it to channel the Earth's power…" he fought to maintain consciousness, though it was becoming more difficult all the time. Something was wrong. Something was wrong.

"From now on, you'll be fighting enemies sent by Giygas… more powerful than the Starman Jr. we faced today… But fear not, you… are not alone. There is another, more powerful fighter in the area, Ness… a heroic spirit with much experience fighting off his monstrous forces, who travels the world fleeing from his past…

"He is in Onett now… I know… for he is… my past self," Buzz-Buzz whispered, remembering how he was all that time ago. "Ness… you must find him and give the Sound Stone to him. He will understand… and he will teach you everything I have failed to… he will show you the secret to PSI. Follow the red cap, Ness. You only have a day before he is gone… Before you do anything, do that first. Do you understand?"

Ness was silent. Buzz-Buzz was nodding off. _He understands… I hope, I pray…_ Yet something was very wrong, his senses told him.

"You are a very intelligent young man Ness…" That snapped him out of it. _No, no he isn't! He hasn't said a single intelligent thing since I met him, why am I trying to reassure myself at a time like this?!_ Nameless dread filled him, and slowly, painfully, he strained to read Ness' mind. He looked up into Ness' eyes, and his mind made contact.

The truth was too horrible to behold. His premonitions… they could not have been more right, yet more wrong.

 _I… have made another mistake…_

Nothing. Ness' eyes reflected it, in their empty gaze at Buzz-Buzz's dying body. Behind those eyes was nothing at all. His view on the world, his emotions, his reaction to the news was nothing.

Buzz-Buzz's worst suspicions had been confirmed. In front of him was a being who was powerful, yes, and no doubt he had potential to grow more powerful than any other. However, this being who had been powerful all his life, invincible all his life… fundamentally could not understand what it meant to be weak. What it meant to die. Instead he stared in incomprehension at the sight, with some boredom in his mind.

This was a being who's morality was not black and white, but blue and yellow. His only priorities, the reason why he kept making up ridiculous games, talked oddly, called people by their wrong names on purpose and caused trouble, was simple escape from boredom. In his mind, boredom was the most sinful of all evils, and excitement the one true ideal. People were not on the morality scale, with the exception of a single Pokey Minch.

And this being that operated solely on whim alone, with no regard to the world or the people who lived on it, was only going to gain more power. Power to rival Giygas…

 _Ana… Lloyd… Teddy… Everyone… I'm sorry. This is a true monster…_

His vision faded to black as Ness' unblinking eyes stared. The boy began to smile slightly, got up and began to walk away.

"OK. Red hat… Red hat… this sounds like the beginning of a right good adventure!" He laughed, and a small red spark flew from between his fingertips, "This'll be fun!"

 _Because of me, he realized his PSI… I'm sorry… I've destroyed the world._


	5. Chapter 4: Mistakes Were Made

**ONETT POLICE STATION**

 **IT'S HARD TO LOOK TRUSTWORTHY IN HANDCUFFS…**

 **FEBRUARY 5th, 199X**

 **7:00 AM**

Curiously, Ness tugged at his iron restraints. He marveled at their craftsmanship; the cuffs were so refreshingly cold against his hot skin as to feel divine, and so wonderfully sturdy that even his harder tugs could only warrant a pleasing clinking noise. The quality of the handcuffs was unbelievable to him, and he regretted how he had never gotten to appreciate them before he had been arrested.

The gorilla of a cop in front of him pounded a humongous fist on the table, almost crushing Ness' hands. "Look at me when I'm talking to you, boy!"

"Oh, sorry. Hey, can I get one of these things in the gift shop? It's super comfortable!"

The gorilla reached over and tightened the cuffs until he couldn't feel his thumbs.

"OK, that hurts."

"Good," the cop sat back in his chair, still visibly annoyed. "Now maybe you'll be more willing to answer my questions, huh kid?" He sighed, cracked his knuckles, and got down to business, "I'll repeat myself. Tell me boy, why did you have to go and steal seven of the ten police cars in Onett, and then dash them all against the wall of the Mach Pizza?!" The cop's face had gone purple with rage, "Do you have any idea how much they'll take out of our paychecks for replacing those things?! Not to mention we'll have Mach Pizza suing us to Switzerland and back for the damages! If this keeps up, I won't be able to afford a SNES! And it'll be all your fault you little-"

"I already told you that wasn't me," Ness pointed out, "It was the other guy in a red cap -"

"You still think I'll buy that ridiculous excuse? How convenient would it be if the culprit was just some other delinquent in a red hat? Even in your story, you admit that he was wearing a red Mr. Baseball Cap, just like yours!"

"I'm not wearing a Mr. Baseball Cap. I'm wearing a Twoson Two-Timers-" he halted, took off his cap, and gave it a look, "Oh, it is a Mr. Baseball."

"See?! How do you explain that?"

"Well, I was wearing two hats before. Looks like I lost the Two-Timers one somewhere along the line. Shoot! I liked that one!"

Ness looked down miserably, his eyes fixating on his cuffs yet again. Curiously, he studied them, felt the cold feel on his skin, and the pleasing tinkle of the metal as he tugged. He broke out in a smile.

The policeman sighed. This conversation had been going in circles for the past two hours. The only thing that varied from cycle to cycle was how mad he got. It was quite obvious now why Captain Strong had refused to do the questioning himself, this kid was impossible.

He spoke in a far gentler voice this time, utterly defeated. "Look, can we just get this behind us already? Just tell me everything that happened, and spare no details, OK?"

Ness looked up with a smile. "Well, all you had to do was ask nicely! Alright, so I left Porky's house, ready to start my new adventure. Buzz-Buzz had told me to go back up to the meteor to grab the Sound Stone, so I decided to go straight there through-"

"I just had to ask nicely?!"

Ness looked offended. "Hey, did you know that it's rude to speak when someone's talking? Sheesh, you were the one who asked…"

The officer gave up. "Very well, continue…"

"Well then, as I was saying…"

* * *

After he had left Pokey's house, Ness had immediately wanted to go back. He had completely forgotten to tell Pokey the news of the incoming adventure.

As much as he would have liked to do so, however, he knew that it wasn't an option. With how mad Pokey's dad had looked, going back into that house was suicide, even with his newfound ability to heal. Plus, he was still mad at Mrs. Minch. Even if he talked too much, Buzz-Buzz would've been nice to have around, if only so that he didn't have to travel alone.

 _Ah well, there's nothing at all to be done about that_ , he thought resignedly, _Now, first things first… Sound Stone! Red cap! Get it done before the chapter's out!_

With that goal in mind, he made his way back to the hillside, and within moments he had climbed to the top of the hill. The hillside had changed quite a bit since last he had set foot there. For one thing, there was one less tree and tons more craters.

The meteorite itself was pretty much unchanged though. Even now, it still burned ever so slightly, though it wasn't nearly as bright as it had looked at night. Ness moved directly towards that, stepping carefully over the leftovers of last night's battle as he went. He carefully scanned the crater for any sign of a Sound Stone, yet he didn't find anything that matched the description.

 _Wait… what description? What in the world is a Sound Stone supposed to look like? Buzz-Buzz never told me anything about it other than its name! Was it round or square like a brick? Was it heavy or light as a feather? Was it even a stone at all?!_ Ness had no way of knowing. Even if he searched for hours, he'd be just as likely to find it as if he'd just picked up a rock at random!

Ness being Ness, he did precisely that. He closed his eyes, spun around in circles, and then groped around blindly as he tried to find something. His hands wrapped around something round and hard, and he opened his eyes to study it.

In his hands he clutched a small blue stone, perhaps the size of his fist. It looked a lot like one of those fancy biscuits he'd eaten once before, with its surface covered in a giant spiral that looked a bit like spun ice cream. Upon his touch, it glowed slightly, with soft white light from somewhere deep inside. And it hummed.

Ness decided that it was a good bet that this was the Sound Stone, and stuffed it in his bag. _Well, that's one thing down. Next up is the red cap!_

He walked up to the edge of the hill that faced downtown Onett, and thought long and hard about where he might've seen a red cap before. Briefly he entertained the notion that it was him Buzz-Buzz was talking about, but the thought of one day becoming a bee was far from appealing, so he dropped it.

Then it hit him. He had seen a red cap on someone other than him before! In fact, he was only a short trip from here. How convenient!

He slung his pack over his shoulder and looked down the hillside, plotting his course down. Below him was a sea of trees, right on the outskirt of Onett. The woods went on for miles, and it was easy to get lost, so no proper resident of Onett ever bothered to go in there.

Yet Ness knew that this red cap in particular was there with certainty. For only he, and perhaps 5 or six assorted boys and stray animals knew that these bewildering woods was a secret among secrets. Within those woods was the super-secret hide-out of the Kids of Onett. This organization was so incredibly secret beyond secrecy that even the most high up, dedicated members of the secretive sect had no clue at all what they were even doing.

Perhaps it was so aimless because Ness was the leader. No matter, one of the Kids had a ruby red cap that Ness had decided he wanted a week ago. The way he saw it, even if it turned out that the Kid wasn't the one Buzz-Buzz had mentioned, he could at least get him to part with his hat at last.

He jumped down the cliff, enjoying the wind in his face as he fell. The roof of the forest approached at breakneck pace. Taking out the cracked bat from pack, Ness prepared himself for the tricky bit coming up.

 _One… Two…_ he counted seconds, he had to be precise here. He'd messed up this stunt multiple times, and the nurse at the hospital had told him that they wouldn't treat him next time.

 _Now!_ He broke the canopy and held his bat above his head, gripping both ends of it as he went under. With a jolt, he felt it connect with a branch overhead, and he began sliding down it at speed. He smiled with satisfaction as his worries he wouldn't make it faded. The treehouse, looking now as ever as if it was eternally about to fall apart, appeared in front of him. _Right on target…_

He then noticed that the wall of the hide-out he was approaching wasn't the one that had the door. With a gasp of surprise he realized he had landed on the wrong side of the tree, and was heading towards the treehouse's back wall.

He braced for impact.

With a loud crash he broke through the plywood wall, and heard screaming as the Kids on the inside scrambled to get out of the way of the unexpected disaster. Wood chips flew everywhere, and Ness himself flew right along with them to slam into the front door. He fell to the floor, dazed but not too terribly hurt. Good thing he could heal.

In the far corner of the room, three boys huddled together, covering their heads with their backs to the hole in the wall. However, they were gradually regaining themselves and shakily getting up to face him. Looking at it upside down in the middle of a destroyed treehouse, Ness started to realize that explaining everything to the others was going to be especially tedious now. He sighed.

A while later, and Ness left the treehouse bitterly disappointed. It turned out the Kid, his name turned out to be Tommy, was not in fact the one Buzz-Buzz had told him about. After Ness had had him hold the Sound Stone, there had been no reaction whatsoever, and he was asked to leave. Lastly, they had stripped him of his title of leader and banned him from entering the woods again except on the impossible condition that he brought a pretty girl with him. With none of those things around, it was effectively eternal banishment.

On the bright side, he had convinced Tommy to give up his Mr. Baseball Cap. He wore his new cap underneath his old one, to keep it from getting dirty. A valid reason in his book.

However, now he had no idea where to go to look for the red cap. No leads whatsoever. Frowning, his wandering feet took him to Downtown Onett. He blinked, waking up from his gloomy trance to take in his surroundings.

The neon light overhead informed him that he had automatically followed his old route to the arcade. He was badly tempted to just go in and play away, at least until the disappointment could fade away. Back in the day, this had been one of his favorite spots to hang out, and memories of quarters long past filled his head. It had been such a long time since he had come here though, and he wondered why that was briefly. _Oh well._ He took a step forward.

As he was on the verge of going in, someone came out. A skateboard clutched in one hand, the masked face looked down at him, grinning cruelly with sharp teeth. A black dorsal fin pointed towards the sky, and the Shark's shades shimmered with malicious glee.

"Who is this shrimp?" he laughed as he identified Ness, "Well this is a surprise! Hey guys! Fool was dumb enough to come back!"

Ness suddenly remembered why he hadn't gone to the arcade lately. Ever since Ness and a friend had accidentally burned down their old base trying to run from escaped circus lions equipped with power tools last summer (long story), the Sharks had made the Onett Arcade their home. Presumably because they knew Ness would continually forget that they were there. The friend had gone to reform school afterwards, and was thus safe from the Sharks' vengeance.

As the Sharks began pouring out of the arcade by the dozen, Ness wished he had gone with him. He turned around and ran as fast as he could the other direction, and the sound of the Sharks preparing to go after him sounded behind.

 _Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!_ Ness thought, rounding a corner in his mad dash away. _Shoot! There's no way I can outrun them on foot! Fighting back? Not an option! Going 50 on 1… how is that fair?_

 _But I've got no choice but to run anyways!_ Footsteps and the sound of skateboards racing after him sounded closer and closer. No matter how he ran, they'd catch up eventually. What he needed right now was a responsible adult. Perhaps the Sharks would leave him alone then.

It was at that moment that Ness saw him. Out of the corner of his eye, there was a flash of red, and he halted immediately, turning towards the flash. In front of him walked a young man, minding his own business roaming the streets of Onett. He wore a blue tracksuit with black highlights, with matching sneakers. He had a towel slung over his shoulder that was perhaps formerly white, but was now dirty with travel. He looked back over his shoulder every now and then uneasily, and his blue eyes looked like they were always thinking a million things at once.

And on his head, the man wore a dusty red baseball cap.

All thoughts of the desperate rush from before were abandoned. Recognition dawned on Ness' face, and he knew then without a doubt that this was the man Buzz-Buzz had been talking about. But who would have guessed it would've been **him**?

He cupped his hands to his mouth as he ran towards the man in the red cap, calling out to him joyfully. " **Ninty!** "

The man jumped and looked back at him. Though he looked startled at first, his look quickly changed to one of relieved recognition. And then as the Sharks rounded the corner, it changed back. He turned on his heels instantly, and bolted.

"No, wait! Hold on, stop running!" Ness called out to him, sprinting with all his might to keep up with the man's superior pace. Yet he kept getting farther and farther away from him. There was no way to keep up with him, he was practically an Olympic sprinter.

Around them, Ness heard the sound of police sirens getting closer, drowning out even the Sharks behind. It looked like the Onett Police Force had gotten word that the Sharks were going wild again. Still, he doubted the police would help him very much, they were almost more liable to arrest him for running on the street than the Sharks for destroying the place in their pursuit.

Desperately Ness thrust out a hand at him, though he had no idea what he was planning on doing from so far away. Yet… he wouldn't let the red cap get away when he was so close. His eyes flashed red. He would **not** let Ninten, his dear old cousin Ninten, get away.

He imagined a hand, his hand reaching out grabbing Ninten by the leg. Imagined pulling him down, bringing him back towards him, and concentrated.

Suddenly, in front of him, Ninten cried out and stumbled. He fell onto the concrete, and handprint appearing on his pants as if he had actually been grabbed. Ness was so shocked that he stopped running himself, and the red glow in his eyes vanished.

Then, Ninten looked back at him, and faintly Ness heard him mutter a curse under his breath. Then the young man's eyes went a vibrant orange, and Ness got a splitting headache. He fell to the ground, clutching at his head. It was like getting brain freeze with a side of head trauma, almost unbearable. All the Sharks apparently had felt the same way, as they dropped at the same time.

Ninten blinked and the orange in his eyes was gone. He got up and looked about, seeing 7 police vehicles blocking off the narrow street ahead. There was no way he could get out without either getting taken into custody by the policed or somehow fighting through the Sharks once they got up, Ness saw.

Ninten sighed and grasped the towel on his shoulder, unfolding it to its' maximum size. He held it out in front of him, facing the police vehicles.

He sighed. "Geez… The reason I didn't want to fight those goons was cause I didn't want to use PSI…but not even a minute later I've gone and had to use it… **she'll** be here soon then… Well then, I guess another round of PSI can't hurt any worse at this point!" An orange flame faintly surrounded his towel, "I'll be skipping town then!"

He crouched, as if about to charge forward, and the policemen who had stepped out of their vehicles grew wary, pointing their guns at him. Ness himself, disoriented as he was, recognized that he was about to run. And if he was skipping town, then there would be no way to give him the Sound Stone.

Ness found himself clutching the Sound Stone, not sure how it had gotten into his hand but not caring regardless. With the last of his strength, he threw it at Ninten, who had begun to run forward.

Ninten was of course stopped immediately.

It hit him in the back of his head, and he stumbled just as the panicked police began to open fire. The Sound Stone hit the ground as the bullets hit the flaming towel. However, the towel was not even frayed. The bullets simply disappeared!

Ninten got up quickly, and began to run forward. The cops were bewildered at this point, and began to run away themselves. Ninten got to the barricade of cars, and with the towel in front, rammed right into the first one.

Ness wasn't sure if he'd seen the next part correctly, or if he was seeing things. As Ninten met the car head on, the car itself was swallowed by the towel he held until there was not a trace left. The same proceeded to happen to the next car, and the next one, until all seven cars had vanished from the face of the Earth, disappearing into the towel, like so many dots in a Pac-man level.

It got more chaotic then. Suddenly, Ninten turned to his left, and the towels orange aura doubled in size. Ness felt a great power overwhelming him as he heard him say, "4th-D Slip!"

With a flick of his wrist, the cars shot out of the towel as if shot out of a cannon. They screeched across the asphalt and careened into the wall of the nearby building, exploding on impact. Ness covered his head as chips of rock and glass rained down on the area around them, and the deafening explosions continued on and on.

By the time the dust had settled, Ninten was long gone, as were the Sharks. The only people left were Ness and the policemen.

The policemen in question slowly turned to inspect the wreckage of their cars, and hear the anguished cry of the Mach Pizza's owner as he came to open for business only to see that his place had been destroyed. They all then looked at Ness. He was trying to crawl over to the Sound Stone, which coincidentally was right next to the fires of the Mach Pizza's wreckage.

Ness was arrested immediately.

* * *

The gorilla slammed his hand on the desk as soon as he had finished his story. "Once again, you still try to pin the blame on someone else instead of fessing up to your own actions?! And it actually being a cousin of yours instead of the actual you… do you expect us to believe that?"

"It's the truth."

"As if!" the policeman roared, "I might not have been there myself, but you expect me to believe that the 'culprit' put all the police cars, and the bullets, in his towel?! And this orange flame nonsense… sounds like something straight out of Final Fantasy!"

Ness looked down at his handcuffs and gave them a half-hearted tug. Recounting the story had really made it clear to him that he had failed. Ninten had gotten away, he hadn't given the Sound Stone to him. It had just bounced off of his head, and now the Stone was being kept by this gorilla! Just how long could his Mom ground him if she found out he was arrested?

He wished desperately that somebody, anybody would save him.

"Pay attention to me!" the policeman said, grabbing Ness by the collar, "Listen, you **will** confess. You **will** take responsibility. And you certainly will not ever get out of here until you do! Unless Captain Strong himself came in here and gave the order, you'll be here until your bones-"

"Sir?" A deep voice sounded from behind Ness, and he turned. His jaw dropped. There standing in the doorway flanked by two sleepy looking officers, was Ninten himself.

"I'm going to have to ask you to let my little cousin go. Captain Strong's orders of course, he was quite agreeable after I hypnoti- I mean, showed him my identification. Did I also mention that he told you all to drop everything about the incident back there? 'Cause he did."

The officer was so shocked he didn't even move as Ninten casually strolled over and took the Sound Stone from his pocket, then broke Ness' iron restraints with his bare hands. At that, the officer fainted.

Ninten turned around and looked at the two officers who just stood vacantly staring into space by the doorway. "Alright, you two! Nighty-night, and that's an order!"

They saluted him and went right to sleep, collapsing on the floor like sacks of potatoes. He turned to Ness and smiled, "They're OK, just a bit of Hypnosis, not anything too bad. Sorry about earlier, kiddo, I hope this made up for it."

With a lazy wave of his hand the front door of the station flew open, and light poured in. "Alright, so my future self told you didn't he? That I'd help train you? Well then, shouldn't we begin now?"

Ness stared a second, and then smiled. "Okay."


	6. Chapter 5: Realize

**…?...**

Ness' eyes opened to a darkness unfamiliar. He blinked, unsure of what kind of situation he had landed himself into. _Where am I?_ he thought confusedly, blinking and realizing that he couldn't tell the difference between having his eyes opened or closed. _Huh. That's weird._ He turned his head to his left and to his right but found that no matter where he looked, it was the inky black every which way.

He had a sensation of falling, though he couldn't tell which way he fell, couldn't even tell up from down. He tried to get up and move around but found that the darkness stuck to him, it felt like walking through tar. He also realized that, for some reason, he felt very, very cold.

He shivered and bunched himself up for warmth, only to notice that he couldn't see his own arms. Bitterly he wondered what would've possessed him to come to such unpleasantness in the first place.

 _The last thing I remember is Ninten saying he was going to train me…_ memories didn't come easy to him, as soon as he tried to recall them they were yanked back into the haze. The most he got was that they had walked around for a while, to… somewhere. _Did we even get there?_ It was at that point his memories cut out, and he was once again left in the dark.

So he sat there, bored and wishing for some help in figuring out this whole thing. He wished Ninten was there with him. Now there was a thought, and quickly he seized on it, going back into his memories of his cousin.

Ninten was related to Ness on his father's side, Ninten's father being Ness' father's younger brother. However, despite the relation, he rarely stopped by to visit family.

It had been a while since Ness had last seen him. Five years in fact, since he had last visited Onett. He never stayed for long. Ninten traveled constantly, and could rarely stay in the same town for longer than 3 days at the very most, even if it was to visit family. He never gave the reason, simply said that it was something he did, and he'd look over his shoulder again. That and he ran off so fast that you'd be lucky to even be able to say "Wait up!" before he was gone.

Ness' mom called him a deadbeat and ignored Ninten whenever he came over. When he left she'd grab Ness and Tracy and tell them to stay in school, and hug them when they gave a bewildered OK. Yet Ness used to look forward to his visits immensely, because Ninten was magic.

When he did come over, he always performed a variety of "magic" tricks to entertain the children, and Ness had driven himself nutty on many an occasion trying to figure them out. Of course he would do the shell game con to them, and guess what cards they chose from a deck, but Ness had figured those out a long time ago. What really had put him in stitches back then was the trick he would do when Mom was away. Once the door shut behind her, Ninten would look around carefully for any sign that she was coming back. Then he'd give the children a knowing wink, and tell them the game as they watched with wide eyes.

It was a simple game called "Find it", and the rules were that Ninten would go into the other room and hide something. If the kids found the object after 10 minutes had passed, they'd win. If not, Ninten won.

The kids never won. They would search high and low for the object, usually something big like a living room table or King, something that would seem simple to find. Incredibly hard to miss. Yet they always missed it, and searched while giggling in anticipation of what would happen when time was up.

Once time had ran out, Ninten would applaud them on their hard work, and finally reveal where he had hidden it. He'd give a sly grin, and reach into his pockets. "It was… right here!"

And he'd pull out the living room table, King, or whatever he had hidden from the depths of his pockets. The children were wowed every time.

Ness smiled at the memories, but suddenly remembered that, oh yeah, he was still sitting in pitch black darkness. A small, red bead of anger boiled up inside him. _Where the heck is Ninty at a time like this?! If I ever see him again, I'll hit him in the face with this bat!_

He whipped his bat out from his pack and was shocked. He could see it. Suddenly he could see his hand. With his other he felt his back. The backpack was still there. He blinked, and saw a red light glowing softly in front of him, like a flickering flame.

Yet… the flame was oddly familiar. Startled, memories overtook him until he thought he was to be blown off his feet. When he had woken up on the ceiling, there had been a red mist when he fell back down, a mist that faded.

 _Levitation._ A voice in his mind echoed unbidden as the memory sank in. Ness looked down at his hands to see a red mist enveloping them.

Another memory rushed at him, coming one after the other. He could talk to animals. Earlier, he had talked to King. But… had he really moved his lips back then? And… in his mind… he had heard King's voice and saw, in his mind's eye… a flash of red.

 _Telepathy,_ the voice echoed again. The blackness began to turn scarlet, the redness flooded it.

When he was growing up, he healed, faster than anyone. In the battle with the Starman Jr. a red aura had flared up around him, and he had healed all his wounds, no matter how terrible.

 _Psychic healing._ He was surrounded by the red. He had never felt so alive. He laughed madly, any form of restraint forgotten.

He had crushed the machine's metal appendage. Between his own two hands.

 _Psychokinesis._ With a grin, he balled both hands into fists, and the red faded immediately. His eyes, though they glowed a fierce crimson, he willed back to normal.

His senses felt heightened. He felt the energy of life in every fiber of his being. _Awesome! I feel awesome! Did I always have these powers? And I never noticed? I feel like a totally different person!_

Ness turned his attention to the darkness that surrounded him, no longer feeling any apprehension. He concentrated, let his vision fill with the red energy- **HIS** Red PSI- and let loose.

An invisible force slammed against the darkness, and before Ness' eyes, broke it to pieces.

Suddenly, Ness was blinded by daylight, and he put up a hand to protect his eyes. There was no trace of the darkness left, and he was on his back in the middle of the forest.. As he blinked with confusion, he heard the sound of slow clapping nearby.

He turned his head. The young man who clapped gave a crooked smile. "Well, well. Look who's back in the realm of the living!" Ninten chuckled, and extended a hand to Ness.

Ness didn't take it. "What happened?"

"Oh, the darkness and everything? Just a special bit of Hypnosis I picked up in South Africa. Works wonders for getting Psychics to realize our own powers. Lord knows we have a hard time with it!" he suddenly sobered, and gave Ness a long, hard look, "But I guess that clenches it. You really are a Psychic. I can see why I- er… the future 'I' – took an interest in you. Where I've got experience and skill, you've got raw power."

He gestured at Ness to follow him. "Come on. Let's talk a bit."

"Wait!" Ness called out, expression unreadable.

Ninten turned around. "What is it?"

Ness took his bat out from his pack. His eyes flashed dangerously. "Don't move."

* * *

"You're mad aren't you?" Ness asked, noting the way Ninten stomped on the ground with every step as they moved, "I hope you're not mad at me. I'd really like to learn about PSI…"

"Of course I'm mad!" Ninten yelled back. There was a fresh goose egg on his noggin, and his nose was bleeding from the unexpected attack, and he had a busted lip, "You broke my face! What's wrong with you?!"

"Well, when I was in the illusion, I promised myself I'd hit you in the face with my bat next time I saw you. I'm a man of my word!"

"You're going too far!" Ninten put his hand up to his face and his eyes flared orange. The nosebleed stopped, and the goose egg vanished, "Geez, this is why I hate dealing with Psychics. They were always bad, or at least quirky, but as soon as they Realize and get some power… **boom!** They're insane! I haven't found a single exception."

Ninten shook his head, "Ah… but the show has to go on doesn't it? That's the fate I've been assigned…

"Tell me this: What do you know of, 'PSI'?" he asked. The trees ahead began to thin out, and distantly they could hear the lazy murmur of the town of Onett waking up. Ness looked up and could tell by the sun's position that it was around noon.

"Well, Buzz-Buzz told me that it was the power I had. That's about it though," Ness admitted, eyes fixating on a long cloud above. He reached out one hand as if to touch it, and tried to coax the red power within him to yank it down. However, as if to spite him, the cloud stayed up where it was, not affected in the slightest.

He frowned as Ninten watched him carefully from the front. "That's it? God… he didn't even have the courtesy to spare me from explaining the basics after everything else he demanded of me…"

He went silent, appearing to think long and hard about something. He spoke at last, "Alright, I'll start from the beginning. But I'm going to go over this once, and it's going to take a while. So try not to interrupt me while I'm explaining, deal?"

Something hit Ness, "But, why do you want to teach me so badly? If it's that bothersome, wouldn't you just not do it?"

"Remember when Buzz-Buzz told you to give me the Sound Stone? Turns out that thing's filled with all sorts of nasty PSI. As in, it was designed so that if it came into contact with me, it would give me my future self's memories, and cause me to implode if you don't gain a Melody in a week. And for some reason, I'm not allowed to come with you when you're going for Giant Step, so there. You've gotta become a Psychic. Now do we have a deal or not?"

Ness smiled, "Deal."

"So, what is PSI huh?" Ninten began, scratching his chin, "Well, I suppose you have a basic idea by now. You know the energy that surrounds you when you use paranormal abilities? Your eyes begin to glow with the force within, and you start to feel full of life, as if you could run forever? That kind of stuff? Well, that's PSI, the rare force of the mind that we Psychics are capable of harnessing to perform miracles. PSI moves!"

Ness gave him a blank stare. Ninten sighed. "It's the energy created when we think. One of my friends, Teddy, thinks it's the energy of our souls, our life force if you will. Everyone has it, to a slight degree, but only us PSI users, Psychics, can take advantage of it. We've got a special gene of sorts that lets our minds harness it. It's like going to a lake to get water. Only we Psychics have buckets to scoop it up with, and once we have a bucket of water, we can pour it on fires."

"Oh! I get it!" Ness chirped, finally understanding, "And the stuff we use, the fast healing and all that. That's PSI at work isn't it?"

Ninten gave him a thumbs up, "In a nutshell. It's not that easy to use PSI though, even as Psychics. There's a bit of a process we have to go through to get anything to work." Ninten stopped in his tracks and turned around, sitting with his legs crossed in the middle of the sidewalk they had found themselves on. Ness did the same as Ninten went on, "For starters, you've gotta Realize your powers first."

"That's what you and Buzz-Buzz made me do!" Ness gasped, interrupting to his cousin's ire.

"Why… yes…" Ninten affirmed, gritting his teeth, "But you promised you weren't going to interrupt… didn't you?"

"Sorry."

"I would hope so," Ninten coughed and got back to business.

"Now, the first step to PSI is to realize you have it. This part is harder than you'd think for Psychics. PSI moves are not learned. They're Realized, we have to realize we have them before we can use them. Yet for us Psychics, we have a hard time even realizing we have PSI! If miracles are commonplace all your life, you never notice they're miracles. So, to get you to notice you have PSI, even if you use it unconsciously all your life, takes a… strong shock to the system," Ninten looked awkward for a moment, and looked Ness straight in the eye, "Um… basically that means you have to almost die. Gives you that adrenaline rush that really takes your powers up to 11, makes them impossible to ignore. So… erm… my future self might've just watched you get beaten up by the Starman Jr. a little bit."

Ness stared, mouth dropping open. He reached for his bat again.

"It wouldn't have been my call!" Ninten hurried stated, gently pushing Ness' bat back into the pack, "Though apparently that wasn't enough realization for you to gain conscious use of your powers, just enough that you knew they were there. That's why I used Hypnosis on you earlier, so if everything went well, you should have at least one new power in there, and the basics unlocked. You'll realize more PSI abilities as you grow though, just keep your mind open for anything odd that happens around you and you'll be golden."

"So what was your near death experience?" Ness asked abruptly. After being made to relive his own horrible time once again, spite had overtaken him. If he had to go through it again, so did his cousin.

Ninten looked mousy. "T-That's not really important. I-I mean, that's a bit of a personal question don't you think? You don't just ask that of another Psychic-"

Ness made a personal note to always ask that of any Psychic he met. Then he demanded, "Tell me!"

"It's not very interesting. Now, on to-"

"I don't care. **Tell me!** "

"OK! Jesus Christ, you're persistent!" Ninten threw his hands up in surrender, "I fell out of my bed and my lamp tried to rip me a new one, OK?!" Ninten crossed his arms and looked as pouty as possible.

"… What?" Ness cleaned out his ears, wondering if he heard that correctly.

"Not saying it again. Told you it wasn't interesting," with that, Ninten got up and began walking again. Ness shortly followed, as he continued, "Now, step two, actually using the darn powers. You're gonna need three things before you do anything: You need to know what you're gonna do, have enough energy to make it happen, and you're going to need to be able to concentrate. To give an example… your fast healing, PSI LifeUp Alpha. Lets say you got a scrape. Since you've already realized LifeUp, you won't be using it automatically like you used to. It'll have to be a conscious thing. So you think about making the wound all better, check to make sure you have enough stamina to follow through, shout 'PSI LifeUp Alpha' and-"

"Question!"

"This better be good…" Ninten muttered. He turned to Ness, "What is it?"

"Why's it called LifeUp Alpha? Why would I even yell it out anyways? Seems annoying," he pointed out. Then something hit him, "Oh yeah, and if I was in a fight, wouldn't the bad guys hear me? They could mess me up real bad."

"When'd you become a logical character?!"

"It's an exposition chapter."

Ninten scoffed, "Fair enough. It's called LifeUp Alpha because I said so, for one. Well, to be honest, me and Ana – oh right, you don't know her. She's a Psychic who eats punks like you for breakfast. Now, we realized that its confusing to just use our abilities without giving them names. It helps us concentrate on using a certain technique if we have something to call it, even if just in our minds. So we came up with names for everything we could do, and I suggest you do the same, God knows you have trouble concentrating as is."

Ness nodded, "Makes sense. But why call out the names each time?"

"Because PSI is freaking dangerous!" Ninten shouted, causing just about every person in a one block radius to turn their heads. He coughed and whispered, "Listen, PSI is one of the most dangerous weapons in the world. If we used our powers wrong, or messed up a little, we could destroy the world! So, since you're going to have to work on a team eventually, you should get in the habit of calling your moves. Basically, it lets your allies know what you're going to do, and where to hide to avoid being wiped off the face of the Earth. Or if you're healing them, it lets them know your PSI flaring means that you're going to help them, and not fire a giant laser that obliterates the moon. Who cares if the enemies hear it, they don't know what all the code names mean!"

"Ah!" Ness smiled, finally understanding.

"Alright, now where was I… oh right, so you'd shout 'PSI LifeUp Alpha!' and concentrate on the vision of the wound closing up. You can't let anything break that concentration, and more powerful feats require more of your concentration. Cause if you don't focus on a singular task, you could do something you didn't mean to do, and that could be disastrous. You could grow a second head or something.

"Other than that, there are certain terms that are unique to the Psychic, sacrifices we have to make or things we have to do to unleash our powers. These are the cost of using PSI, and sometimes its different per move. For example, I have a bit of a cost whenever I use any PSI. Depending on how much I use in a single burst, I lose memories."

"That sounds awful though!"

"It's not that bad. You forget what you forget after all. Besides, if I make sure to limit my usage, I'll only forget things from maybe 5 minutes back. Not too much worse than just getting asthma… though if I'm asthmatic and forgetful at the same time, that's problematic. Who knows what you've got though, guess you'll have to find out what your personal cost is."

Ninten scratched his head, "Hm… that's about it… but I feel like I'm forgetting something…" he snapped his fingers at the realization, "Oh right! I forgot to tell you about colors!"

"Oh is that it?" Ness looked incredibly disappointed, "Red and blue make purple. Yellow and Blue make green. Red and Yellow make-"

"Not even close. No, I'm talking about the color of your PSI, your energy. This is really important! Can't believe I almost forgot!" Ninten shook his head, "Listen, every PSI user has a color. This is what their PSI 'looks' like to us, and it lets us predict what type of abilities they can use.

"The colors come in six varieties! ROY G BV. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet!" Ninten blinked, "Actually, I made a mistake there. It's OY G BV. No one has Red PSI, except for…" he shuddered, "Giegue. Or is he going by Giygas now? Either way, he's definitely not human, so he doesn't count."

Ness' interest was piqued. He looked down at his hands and concentrated, seeing a red spark jump between them. No human can have Red PSI?

He opened his mouth to ask the question, but Ninten took one look at him and shushed him. "Nope. We're almost through, you can save your questions until the end, OK? At any rate, OY G BV are organized by most defensive or utilitarian type, to the most offensive type. Orange, my own PSI color, has no offensive moves, PK moves, in its arsenal. Violet on the other hand, would be the opposite, with only offensive moves and no healing moves. You understand? Depending on the color, you learn different moves. Now, when you were under Hypnosis… what was the color of your PSI?"

"Hey, what does Red PSI do?"

"I already told you to stop with the questions! Besides, no one knows. Though all PSI follows the same basic rules, and even the most devastating attack have to follow the laws of physics, Red PSI… doesn't," Ninten got a far off look in his eyes, a classic thousand-yard stare, "No… Giegue didn't seem affected at all. Even now I still don't understand what he did, but at one point he broke every bone in every being on Earth. At the same time. Strangely, no one died, and in the very next instant he fixed it. That is what Red PSI is capable of…"

His eyes once again regained focus, and he gave Ness a serious stare, "Listen, If you ever bump into anyone, or anything, that uses Red PSI… my advice would be to run as far the other way as possible immediately. Red PSI… it is the one thing in this world that I can truly say I am afraid of."

Ninten shook his head, as if trying to dislodge his thoughts, and gave a forced little smile. "B-But that has nothing to do with anything right now. So, what color did you see in the Hypnosis? What color is your PSI?"

Ness paused, then spoke. "My PSI color, it's R-"

"Hold that thought, we're here," Ninten cut-in, halting suddenly. Ness looked up to see what he was pointing at. In front of them was a very familiar looking building, though now it was run down, with holes in the walls everywhere. From the inside, the beeps of machines and the sound of quarters going into sockets was heard. The sign above said, "Arcade".

"Alright, so for our first bit of training, why don't we bust up those punks who chased us around earlier huh? They'll make perfect punching bags, don't you think? And heck, maybe the rest of Onett will be thankful if we take them out!"

Ness suddenly grinned. It looked like there were perks to being a Psychic after all. He'd wanted to beat the tar out of the Sharks for as long as he could remember.

"Yeah. This'll be fun!"


	7. Chapter 6: Enter Frank

**BEHIND ONETT ARCADE**

 **"FAIL-PROOF" FRANK, THE LEADER OF THE SHARKS**

 **9:30 AM**

 **ONE YEAR OF GATHERING GARBAGE HAS FINALLY PAID OFF**

There was just something about the day that put Frank off, something that made him think, _Today is the day I die._ He couldn't put his finger on what it was. maybe it was the way the town quietly bubbled to life as noon steadily approached. Every whisper of the townspeople, all the cordial greetings and farewells uttered as they passed each other in the street… that was definitely it. They were all plotting against him, speaking in code! Saying, "Today! Today is the day that that no-good imbecile Frank dies!"

Or perhaps it was the fact that it had taken him precisely 13 minutes and 2 seconds to find a four-leaf clover this morning. 13… such an unlucky number! Especially since just the day before it had taken him 12 minutes and 58 seconds, quite a close call! Yes, that was why he had his Sharks take over the Arcade. The backyard of the place was swimming with clovers the day he moved in. With it in his grasp, bad omens would steer clear of his path for good.

Frank wiped the sweat from his brow as he thought to himself how today was going to be the worst day of all time. To tell the truth, this was how he always felt. Every single day, every single week, since the beginning of his life he had been paranoid and superstitious. He saw bad omens everywhere, and paid close attention to every minute detail that crossed his path. He was the type of person who came up with all kinds of crazy conspiracies based on things he had just glanced.

Onett was his enemy, from the townspeople themselves to every single black cat or raised ladder in it. They were all out to jinx him. Everyone was in on it, laughing at all his secret failings and sniggering at his successes, waiting for him to fall back to earth again. But he would not take that lying down, oh no sir.

That was why he'd formed the Sharks, became the toughest and most feared man in town. He would force Onett to become lucky for him, and uncover all conspiracies against him. And then he'd spit in their eyes and laugh in their faces, victorious. It was this mindset, this paranoia and superstition, that made him think harder than anyone else, coming up with all sorts of convoluted traps for his enemies. It was this mindset that made sure that, even now, he had all his strongest Sharks in the Arcade just in case of a raid, and an AK-47 hidden in the bushes in the corner of the yard. It was this that made him carry more knives on his person than there were in a butcher's. It was this very mindset that made him "Fail-Proof" Frank.

But today was different. Frank smiled darkly and turned his mind back to his work. It had taken him a whole year to get to this point, but by the end of today… no, by the end of the hour it would all be worth it. Everything would change. He brought his hammer down on the pile of scrap before him with a satisfying thud. At last, it would all come together…

" **Boooooooooossssss!** " The door behind him slammed and a Shark stumbled out in a panicky rush, tripping on his own two feet and landing face first in the mud. He didn't stay down for long though. The poor sap scrabbled to his feet in a blur of motion, tripping again and again as he ran to the boss on the other side of the yard. "Boss! Trouble! Come quick!"

Frank stiffened as the Shark got near, and without warning he spun around and pulled a knife out from nowhere, sticking it directly in front of the Shark's nose. The thug paused and went silent.

After a tense moment, Frank spoke. "You… what was your name? Whimper?"

"W-Warrick sir," he squeaked, fearfully staring at the knife such that he became cross-eyed.

Frank paid him no mind. "Well then... **Warrick**... did you know that when you barged on out of the Arcade, you stepped on my shadow?"

The Shark named Warrick began to sweat, and undoubtedly went pale under his mask. "I-I swears I didn't mean to! I'm sorry b-b-boss man!"

"Sorry won't cut it! You stepped on my shadow, the very head of my shadow! Do you know what that means? I'm due to suffer a head injury today because of you! I've half a mind to gut you where you stand."

The Shark began to cry, "I-I'm sowwy! B-But… there's trouble… that Ness kid showed up in there, and he… and that man… and before we knew it, it was alive!" the poor man had become a blubbering mess, losing more and more composure as he went, "Horrible! And just when we thought we had him… Ness went and… that old man… Oh God! Poor Johnny got shoved right in!"

 _What is this imbecile going on about?_ Frank thought, utterly baffled. "Hold on, can you slow down a bit? What happened back there?"

Warrick gulped, and began, "W-Well we was just minding our own business-like, and then those two showed up and…"

" **There you are!** "

Suddenly, the door to the arcade blasted open, and a Donkey Kong arcade machine flew out from the depths at an impossible speed. Warrick screamed and threw himself to the dirt as the machine sailed over head, and Frank did the same. The machine crashed down just behind them, leaving wide grooves in the earth where it slid. It banged into the fence and went still at last.

Nobody moved. The dirty, banged up machine kept making beeping noises from within.

At last, Frank stood up and wiped the dirt from his red suit. He turned to Warrick, "Well, looks like we do have trouble after all, eh Warri-"

" **GAH!** L-Look at the machine!" Warrick screamed. Underneath his mask, his eyes rolled back into his head, and the Shark passed out.

Spooked and curious by his minions last words before fainting, Frank slowly turned back around to check out the Arcade machine.

What he saw almost made Frank, the hard-boiled boss of the Sharks of Onett, wet himself.

Stuffed inside the machine, face pressed up against the glass of the screen, was the beaten up body of a Shark. His uniform had a million different slashes and holes in it, horrible puncture marks and signs of blunt force used. Yet as for the Shark's skin, there was not a puncture on it, it was as smooth as a newborn babe. Stranger still was the fact that the Shark was inside the Arcade machine. If the poor guy had simply been smashed against the Donkey Kong cabinet over and over until the glass broke Frank wouldn't have been fazed. He'd seen some terrible stuff in his day. But the machine didn't have a single hole on it big enough to fit an entire person in. No, the only holes or dents in it were from it being kicked into the backyard a moment before.

But it had happened anyways, no matter how impossible it was.

Chilled to the very bone, Frank took a hesitant step back.

"No way… this can't have happened," Frank whispered in shock, "Who? Who could've done this?"

"And that's the last one! Ninty, how'd you do that? I wanna put people in stuff too!" from the inside of the Arcade, two voices drifted out towards Frank, and he tensed up as they got louder and louder, closer and closer.

The next voice, smug and sure, was that of a grown man, a stark contrast from the child who spoke before. "Sorry kiddo, but that's a more… me-ish kind of thing. Never met anyone else who can use the 4th D Slip."

The child's voice sounded mildly disappointed, "Aw… Well, I've at least got LifeUp on my side, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of Hypnosis too…"

"Like heck you've got LifeUp down! You're using it wrong! It's not an attack, it's for healing. That's why it's called PSI LifeUp, not PK LifeUp!"

"Well, if I call it PK LifeUp from now on, it's OK right?" the child's voice sounded closer than ever. Frank began to sweat.

"That's not how it works…" Closer. Ever closer.

Frank couldn't make head or tails of what was said. It was all Greek to him. However, what he did know was that two hostiles were approaching from the inside, and in all likeliness they had taken out the Sharks inside.

He heard their footsteps get closer still, and stop in their tracks. He didn't move, no, Frank just wouldn't move. He wouldn't even look at them. Frank visibly relaxed, letting his shoulders fall a little and his breathing even out. In a situation where he didn't know what was going on, the worst thing to do would be to freak out. That would be giving the enemy what they want. Now… was the time to be crafty.

The child's voice, the annoying shrimp Ness' voice, spoke up behind him, "Hey, that guy looks different than all the others. Think he's that Frank guy the others were hollering about?" the boy cracked his knuckles, "Eh… doesn't matter. I'm on a roll here! Let's get him anyways!"

Frank paid the child's words no mind, and looked about him, his eyes resting on the bush by the tree where his AK-47 lay hidden. He almost chuckled. How prophetic of him to leave that in store, just for situations like this!

He wiped the smirk off his face and turned to Ness. His plan was clear. _As for how he wiped out my boys, I guess I'll never know. Doesn't matter either. I'll just distract him with a bit of talk, and slowly walk back to the bush…_

With that, Frank cleared his throat and growled, "… I'm Frank. You are?"

Ness blinked, as if he hadn't expected to be asked anything. Frank was careful not to let the joy of his plan going so well go to his face. He backed up slowly, and before long, his back hit the bush. He reached in, smirking at last when his hand hit something hard. _At last._

In a flash he gripped it and swung it out, pointing it at Ness with a magnificent cackle. The boy's eyes widened.

He pulled the trigger. Absolutely nothing happened.

"W-What?" Frank began, before he looked down and got a good look at his 'weapon'. In his hands, instead of the AK he so wished for, he had a stick. Just. A. Stupid. Stick.

While he stood there gaping, the voice of the older man sounded from behind him. "Jesus… what was something this dangerous doing just lying about? Someone could've been killed!"

A shiver went down Frank's spine. _Behind me?! How?!_ He whipped around to face the man, brandishing a knife.

There was no one there.

The older man spoke from behind him again. Frank could feel his breath on his neck. "How careless can you get? Actually, forget carelessness, are you even old enough to buy one these things? I doubt it's legal. Hm... I'll be holding onto it for the time being then, 'kay?"

Frank turned again, and once again there was no one there.

Not even his gun was there, it was just an empty yard, with Ness on the side near the Arcade waiting patiently for something. Yet, in the quiet, Frank could hear footsteps across grass, and the sound of something metal, his gun, being dragged in the dirt.

However, he knew that this was impossible. For, even if the man could somehow turn himself invisible, Frank would've at least have been able to see the footsteps and the drag marks! But there was nothing at all!

"Then why… why won't the sounds stop?!" Dread crept into Frank's mind, and he was acutely aware of each and every knife on his body. Clearly these two, Ness and his companion, had mysterious powers that he did not understand. As Frank was naturally a superstitious person, he did not question this bit of logic, and got over his shock fast. Determination flooded him, replacing his fear.

He grit his teeth together. No matter what abilities these two had, he knew one thing and one thing for certain.

He would not go down without a fight.

The sun shone on the pile of scrap behind him, making the copper pile look as if it were on fire. He managed a grin.

He had a monster of his own, after all.


	8. Chapter 7: PK Rockin

**THE DAY THAT ROCKED THE WORLD**

 **9:35 AM**

 **THE FIRST "BREAKTHROUGH"**

To be perfectly honest, Ness hadn't been paying much attention to recent events. He was enjoying himself far too much to bother with thinking about the situation. And who would blame him? He'd spent all morning beating the tar out of the Sharks, and with his new PSI, he had hardly broken a sweat.

He'd discovered quite a few tricks he could do with it already, and even now more and more possibilities danced in his mind. Rather than focus on the events going on around him, like the fact that Frank had pulled some odd, round thing from his pockets, he instead focused on how good he would feel if he got the chance to use his PSI again.

Ninten reappeared in front of his face without warning, bearing a serious look. Ness was snapped back to reality immediately. "Hey, you don't look so good. What happened?"

Ninten sighed and dropped something at Ness' feet, "Well, it turns out Mr. Frank over there was planning a bit of a surprise for us."

Here was a gun that was unmistakable and immediately recognizable, even to Ness. An AK-47, the granddaddy of all machineguns. Something told him that if that had opened fire on him, his measly PSI LifeUp Alpha wouldn't have been able to do a thing to put him back together again.

Ninten nodded upon seeing the look on his face, "Good thing I decided to do some recon before anything happened. You know, 'cause I'm a good cousin like that."

Ness clenched his fists, shaking slightly. Frank… would've shot him. Before he would've even have been able to get a punch in, Frank would've shot him. The thought of being taken out so quickly, so **unfairly** … it was no fun to be cheated!

But then the shaking stopped, and the smiling began. Ness began to giggle, much to his cousin's concern.

"Huh. I confess I don't know how most people act when they hear that someone was gonna blow their head off, but I'm pretty sure that most people don't… giggle about it," Ninten commented as Ness then broke into full on laughter.

Ninten was unnerved. "What's up? Aren't you even a little mad?"

Ness beamed at his cousin, and gleefully he replied, "Well, I was mad, but then I realized this: With the other Sharks I could beat them up without feeling bad at all, because most of 'em tried to kill me before anyways. But with this guy, though I probably wouldn't have felt bad about kicking the lunch out of him…" the pupils of his eyes flashed red once, in their very depths. He cracked his knuckles, and stepped forward towards Frank, "After finding out what he was gonna do, I think I'll actually **enjoy** getting him! Hey, Ninty, I'm taking this guy out myself, okay?"

Ninten blinked, then raised his hands behind his head as he relaxed, "Right, right. I wasn't planning on getting involved from the start anyway. Just don't get lazy and throw him at me like that other guy, I'd hate to ruin another Donkey Kong machine."

"Okay! You'd better remember what you said just now. If you get in my way, I'll neeeeeeeeeeever forgive you!"

At last, Ness turned his attention towards the Shark Boss. He waved a greeting, and got his bat out. "Alright, so you're name's Frodo right? I'm Ness, nice to meet-"

Suddenly, Ness was nailed in the face by something that exploded into a million glass shards on impact, and his introduction was cut off by his own scream of surprise and pain. His eyesight blurred by the shards that dug into his skin, he could scarcely react to, much less see Frank dash up to him for his next attack.

More sharp, stabbing pains erupted in his abdomen. Ness found himself struggling to breathe as cold steel infiltrated his body. Looking down, he was able to see, though quite blurrily, that Frank had stabbed six knives into his belly, three for each hand of his.

Ness' feet left the ground, carried upwards by the sudden onrush. Frank violently jerked his knives out of his body, and then kicked Ness away to land in a heap on the scrap pile.

* * *

Panting, Frank wiped the sweat off his brow as his attack was completed. It had really been a wise idea for him to have not only multiple knives, but a snow-globe stashed on his body as well. That snow-globe had made the perfect opening attack: disorienting the opponent, stabbing into them with hundreds of glass shards, and the liquid inside, as well as the soap flakes that made the "snow" got into the wounds and made them burn even more. From that point, all Frank had to do was go nuts with his knives. Ness couldn't have done a thing if he had wanted to.

He turned to Ninten, who still just leaned against the wall of the arcade. Now that the boy was out of the way, the only one left was the older man. With that weird power of his, Ninten was a foe that Frank was sure he would have issues with. He unsheathed his daggers again, this time with 5 in each hand.

However, Ninten showed no sign of recognizing Frank's obvious hostile intent, and instead whistled appreciatively, the only reaction to the vicious attack, "Whoa. Now that's a one-two combo! Painful just to look at it…"

He seemed to notice Frank, and held up his hands in a helpless gesture with a smile that somehow pissed Frank off. "Oh, I'm neutral in this fight, but… Don't think for a second you got him, alright? He can heal up pretty quick-" Ninten blinked, "Oh, too late."

"What do you mean too la-" Frank began. Then the pile of scrap shifted behind him, and he whipped around to see Ness, the boy who should have been dead to rights, get up again and brush the shards of metal off him.

There were two knives still in him, and yet the boy was smiling! He had just been thrown into a bunch of scrap metal, he shouldn't even be standing, and yet he smiling! The shards of the snow globe were still just falling out of his wounds, and who knew how deep the soap flakes had gone, and yet the darn kid was still smiling!

"Hey, hey. That's not gonna work…" Ness chided, finally reaching down to dislodge one of Frank's knives from his chest. Even Frank winced at seeing him rip it out. However, in front of his very eyes, the ghastly wound closed itself, shrinking into a scrape, then a scar, then nothing at all.

If it was possible, Ness' grin widened. He held the knife up above his head, "If you wanna kill me, you've got to aim properly! For a Psychic, aim for the head!" He demonstrated, indicating a stab to the eye, but stopping before the knife actually got him, "It'd be harder to heal from that way… Oh, I almost forgot," He dropped the knife, and it hung in midair as his eyes glowed a faint red. "This is yours isn't it?" With a flick of the wrist, he sent it hurtling towards Frank, where it embedded itself in his mohawk.

 _He's insane!_ Frank took a few involuntary steps backward. He had already known that Ness was weird, but now that he was apparently Psychic, it was as if the whole world worked to his crazy rules now. The laws of physics, causality, what did they mean anymore? What could put down this monster?

* * *

While Frank was thinking this, Ness had taken the other knife out of him, and the rest of him had healed up from his PSI LifeUp. Now, it was time for the neat trick he had figured out while beating up the Sharks.

Ness gripped the knife firmly in one hand, while with the other he reached into his backpack. He took out a bunch of googly eyes, and in a second had slapped a few on the sides of the knife. He smiled with satisfaction. Then, he let his PSI flow, "And now for PSI LifeUp with a spin! This is a Ness McTracy original: **PK LifeUp! Alpha!** "

The knife hummed with a green glow, and suddenly began to float out of Ness' hands. It flew a few feet upward, before stopping abruptly. The googly eyes on it started to move, its pupils bouncing all over the place, before looking… actually **looking** straight ahead.

The knife was alive!

This was the technique Ness had learned, when he had done the one thing not even Ninten had thought of before with his PSI LifeUp… using it on an inanimate object! Thus, PK LifeUp Alpha, Ness discovered, could actually bring things to life, instead of merely healing them! Though the new life wasn't necessarily loyal to Ness, it did add a lot of chaos and confusion to any situation.

Chaos and confusion were two of Ness' favorite things. They rivaled steak and rockin' out to him.

But in the process of discovering PK LifeUp, Ness had figured out that animals need eyes to see. The last time he had used it was on a pogo stick one punk had had, and it had just bounced randomly and crazily until it impaled itself into the roof and stopped moving. But this time, he had come prepared! This time he had brought googly eyes!

The knife looked around, pointing its sharp tip at the surroundings to attempt to get a better view with its poorly pasted on eyes. Ness stared after it with a mixture of amazement and pride, while Ninten just facepalmed where he stood.

"Oh my God… how many times do I have to tell you? PK LifeUp isn't a valid move!"

"It worked, didn't it? Plus, ol' Knifey can see now. And now that he can see, he'll get that no good Frank!"

The knife suddenly turned in midair towards the sound of voices, and it's eyes locked with Ninten's. Ninten went quiet, a rebuttal dying in his throat as he and the knife stared at each other. Neither moved for several seconds. Ninten started to sweat uncontrollably.

With a shaky finger, he pointed at Frank and gave a nervous smile, "U-U-Uh… No, erm… Mr. Knife sir. Y-You're not supposed to attack me, it's the M-M-Mohawk over there that you want… I'm… uh… neutral."

The knife made a screeching sound like metal against glass and dove down towards him, ignoring his pleas and acting much as if Ninten had personally insulted it's mother.

" **JESUS CHRIST!** " Ninten jumped backwards and out of sight as he disappeared into the 4th Dimension, but the knife was too fast. It got close enough to him that, by the time the words, "4th-D Slip" had left his mouth, it had went into the 4th Dimesion with him. Ness and Frank heard the sounds of frantic running on the grass, though they could no longer see Ninten, and the occasional scream that grew fainter and fainter as he ran further away. The sound of the screeching knife followed, and eventually, both sounds vanished into the distance.

The last thing they heard from poor Ninten was something along the lines of, "No! **No!** Stay away from me, no! **Jesus** , I… uh… wait, not there! **NOOO!** "

There was silence for a few minutes. Ness sighed, "Aw… there goes ol' Knifey. I'll miss him," He clicked his tongue and looked at Frank, "Well then, I guess we'll settle this the old fashioned way- huh? Where'd you go?"

Frank was long gone. Ness blinked, he hadn't even noticed him move, much less leave. Yet, he couldn't see him anywhere in the yard!

Ness moved on over to the spot where Frank had used to be, when a familiar, jerkish voice echoed over the yard. "'Fail-Proof' Frank can't be beaten!" Ness turned around with another stupid grin to face Frank. But this time, even _his_ grin faltered at what awaited him.

Frank was standing on top of the former massive pile of scrap that had been so conspicuous before. Except this time, it had taken a definite shape, and was emitting bursts of steam at random.

It's face was cruelly beaming down on Ness, it's smile a mirror of its creator's. It's long, sharp nose was quite similar to Frank's as well. It was taller than the Arcade building itself, and it carried itself around on tank treads. It had two long mechanical arms with iron fists that were as big as Ness himself was, and its engine core it wore proudly in its chest. The flag attached to the back of its head was all white on one side, with words on the other side that read, "MK II".

What Ness had thought to be a pile of scrap was, unmistakably, a humongous, stupendous, pneumatic, and downright super fighting robot.

As Ness gawked at the mechanical monstrosity, Frank cackled down at him. "You think you're so tough, but let me tell you this. No one, and I mean No one, beats 'Fail-Proof' Frank! This is the product of one entire year's worth of work from all of us Sharks of Onett! This will keep anyone from looking at us funny for generations, even in the depths the internet! This is 'Frankystein Mark II'. Any last words?"

Ness gulped. In this situation, there was really only one thing to say. In a hoarse voice, he croaked, "A-Awesome…"

Frank nodded and grinned maliciously. "It is. Now, prepare to be annihilated!"

The Frankystein let out a burst of steam, and charged forward. It brought one of it's mechanical fists up, and down again upon the boy. Ness reached into his backpack and feebly tried to block the blow with his bat. The cracked bat was crushed into pieces by the overwhelming force, and the pieces flew all over the yard. Ness himself was launched clean across, and in fact crashed straight through the wall of the arcade back into it.

The shards of the wall landed all around him, and he coughed as his lungs were felt crushed by the impact. One of the arcade machines must've short-circuited or something, because suddenly the place had caught fire. The smoke blinded Ness, and try as he might to put some more air into his damaged lungs, all he could inhale was smoke.

The Frankystein MK II broke into the arcade again, letting loose another burst of steam before raising its fists again. Ness saw the blow coming out of the corner of his eye, and he rolled over and got to his feet just before it hit. The concrete underfoot cracked with the force, and he tripped and fell again as his footing became unstable.

He had fresh wounds all over his body, and the Frankystein didn't seem like it was going to stop its assault anytime soon. Ness' pathetic LifeUp Alpha had no chance at healing wounds this severe, especially dealt within seconds of each other!

The flames illuminated the Frankystein's face as it prepared another blow. Ness didn't have a prayer of dodging it, couldn't even brace himself for it.

It hit, and Ness felt as if at least half of the bones in his body were shattered on impact. He crashed right back into the flaming backyard, and distantly he heard the sound of sirens and startled screams of people who were unfortunate enough to be nearby.

Ness couldn't look down at himself, it would hurt too much. But he was sure that he was a sorry sight, just a few inches from death. _Shoot, that thing's way too strong. Fast too. Something that big shouldn't be allowed to be that fast. It's not fair._

The Frankystein came out of the arcade again, with Frank on top shouting with glee. He pointed at Ness again, and the Frankystein gave another burst of steam before advancing again.

 _That's not fair!_ The Frankystein brought its fist up again to tear into Ness.

But at that moment, something inside Ness snapped, and the world would never be the same again. Something broke, perhaps it was a barrier, or an inhibitor, or maybe it was the world itself, but something broke. Ness began to see red. Dimly, he heard the sounds of Ninten returning, yelling something in a concerned tone but then stopping abruptly with a gasp of horror.

A thought occurred to Ness as the fist was being brought down. A thought that had somehow avoided him back when his PSI had awakened. A realization. _When I get mad, things break._

His PSI, though he was on the brink of death, surged higher than it had ever been before. It went a more crimson red than had ever been seen in this world before or since.

When Ness got mad, things broke. It had been that way since he was little. Things broke without his having ever touched them, and there had been no explanation.

Around him, the world began to fade into static, and odd 'panels' began to pop up everywhere, floating up from nothing and continuing into nothing. The panels were many colors all at once, thought the predominant color... was red.

It was as if the whole world around Ness was starting to glitch out, like an old TV game.

 _When I get mad, things break,_ Ness raised a hand to the machine's fist, letting his PSI explode.

 _I have never been angrier._

There was a feeling that came over every being in the world at that moment. It was a feeling like suddenly being drenched from head to toe in cold water. For a second, it was as if time itself had stopped.

Ninten stammered, "G-Giegue…"

Ness spoke, " **Break.** "

There was a sound as if a thousand glass panes had been broken at once. And screamed in chorus.

Across the world the ripples of that terrible PSI, the first PK Rockin' Alpha, were felt. All around planet Earth, factory machinery came screeching to a halt. Cars stopped moving, broke down where they stood. TV's caught fire, computers shut down, traffic lights went haywire.

In the town down the road, a certain girl cried out in frustration as her brand new SNES burst to pieces the very instant she had finally gotten it set up. She sensed the psychic wave, felt the crimson PSI roll over the world like a ruby blanket, and sighed. "What an idiot... way to show the world you're both powerful **and** hostile, Ness McTracy..."

Every piece of machinery on planet Earth had broken at once.

This of course included the Frankystein. Right before it's blow hit, the thing exploded in stupendous fashion with its creator on top of it. Frank was launched far away somewhere, and the pieces of the Frankystein MK II flew through the air and rained on the town of Onett like confetti.

Ness' Red PSI faded as PK Rockin' finished. "Whoa." Even he was surprised at what he had done there! He stared down at his hands in amazement as his hidden power became clearer to him. His ability, PK Rockin', was the ability 'to break'.

He felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and his vision went black. He slumped to the ground as Ninten stood over him, sighed, and then sat next to him.

He patted Ness on the head, "So, yours was red huh?" He reached into his bag and took out a Gatorade, and downed it. "That ability of yours was Giegue's boy, the one he used 10 years ago. To have such an evil power in you… I couldn't help but attack you there."

Ninten shook his head. He got up and picked up the boy, slinging him across his shoulder. Memories of that day came flashing back to him, and of what happened after. If what Giegue had used back then had been just the **Alpha** version of whatever PSI technique this was…

He shuddered and looked to Ness, "Scary stuff, huh buddy? You're a real monster, you know that?" His future self was right. This boy was a monster. Yet… it had been 10 years since Giegue had used that technique, and it was Alpha then. To think what he could do now as Giygas… what could this technique do in Beta? … heck, Omega? At this point, the only thing that could take down that monster would be this monster in the red cap right here.

"Now, what am I going to do with you…"

* * *

 **Hey, this is the end of the Chapter, so if you're not interested in what I personally have to say, then go right ahead and ignore this part. But for those of you who do care...**

 **Author's Note! First of all, I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to read this fic from the bottom of my heart! Really, I appreciate it, and I hope you have just as much fun reading it as I have had writing it! But right now, I want to clear some things up.**

 **Regarding the story, I suppose the biggest thing to talk about is how I'm releasing this. You see, isn't where I normally post my chapters. No, once I'm done with a chapter, I usually post it to 's writing forum, and my usual timing for that is around the 1st week of any given month. As a result, some people might've already seen some portions of Chosen Crusade, as well as my own Author's Notes I jot down from Chapter to Chapter. But I digress, eventually I decided to post onto FanFiction as well, and most of the stuff between the sites is copied and pasted. However, before uploading it here, I usually go over the chapter one more time and make small improvements here and there (usually grammar and spelling mistakes, as well as minor continuity fixes) and some other things here and there to make it read better. Since this is the case, updates here are going to come later than updates on Starmen, but I can almost guarantee that the chapters I post here will be better than what I post on Starmen.**

 **Speaking of Chapters, the next one I've got working on will be... different. Hopefully, different in a good way! And if everything goes swimmingly, this will change EVERYTHING in Chosen Crusade. How? Well obviously, it's a secret!**

 **Now, for the next thing I want to talk about, PK Rockin itself. In the game Earthbound, this was known as PSI Rockin', and it was a psychokinetic wave created by concentration in its flavor text. However, in Chosen Crusade, it is called PK Rockin because of the notation of PSI moves in Earthbound Beginnings and Mother 3, to make it more constant. However, that's not the only difference… the effects of PK Rockin are probably not what people would typically think of when talking about PK Rockin. The ability "to break"? How does that have anything to do with it's presentation in game… not to mention it sounds incredibly overpowered! Allow me to explain.**

 **In the game, all we know for sure about PK Rockin itself is that it is a psychic wave, and it looks strange when used. (trippy colors, staticy graphics, odd noises and glitched out panels everywhere) But what exactly does it do ? What happens when you're hit? Is it just an explosion? Are you slashed apart? Concussive force? Transformed into bacon? It's not really clear, aside from the fact that it is an offensive move used for offensive purposes, and only Ness, Ness' Nightmare, and Giygas can use it.**

 **When planning out Chosen Crusade, I also had an issue here, and overtime I thought it odd how both Ness and Giygas used the same move. Eventually it occurred to me that anything that would be "inexplicable" to Ninten and the party might just be something incredibly strange even for them, or maybe a PSI move they've never used or seen used before… they might just not know the name. So, what if PK Rockin was Giegue's "inexplicable" move back in Earthbound Beginnings? From there I started thinking. What kind of ability would a cosmic destroyer have? What exactly does the guidebook mean when it says that Ness can "affect cosmic events"? The end result was me thinking what the most evil, chaotic power in existence was… and then it came to me. The ability "to break". Just the word itself sounds painful! "Break!" And if you take it up to 11 and expand breaking things from just the physical to the nonphysical (concepts such as gravity and magnetism, emotions or memories) it just gets worse and worse. Next, the ability would have a cosmic scale based on the guidebook and Giegue's position… so if you used PK Rockin to break "bones" then every bone in the world, perhaps the universe, would shatter.**

 **Buuuuuuut, even I thought that the ability seemed a little unfair. That's why, with Ness at least, there are limits to what he can do with PK Rockin Alpha. The reason for these limits make sense with the character, and the actual reasons behind them will be gone into sooner or later, but the limits are: First, Ness cannot break any part of anything that is living or was once alive. Though Giegue could break every bone in the universe and fix it later by "breaking" his "breaking of the bones", Ness can't pull off this feat. It's impossible for him. Secondly, Ness cannot break things that contain PSI that is equal to or stronger than his, even if its just a small part of a PSI that as a whole would be stronger than his PSI. Anything Giygas made or Giygas related Ness cannot use PK Rockin directly on. Third, Ness cannot break anything that is made of Zexonyte. This is… quite a specific weakness, but players of Earthbound will know that Zexonyte isn't a material that can be naturally found on Earth, and was used to create the time machine at the end of the game. In Chosen Crusade, Zexonyte still can't naturally be found on Earth, and has the property of being "solidified logic" that no PSI can affect in the slightest. Of course, many of Giygas' minions and helpers (such as Pokey Minch and Mr. Carpainter) make sure to have at least some Zexonyte on hand in case of a Psychic attack, or in case of Ness in particular. Anything too close to Zexonyte is out of the coverage range too. Fourth, PK Rockin, at least in it's Alpha phase, can only be used a maximum of three times a day. The three times it is used, it can be only be used to break two solid, physical objects, and one "big break" that can affect the entire world and things that don't have physical form. Ness doesn't have as much PSI as Giegue did back in Beginnings, and is limited by that. He'll simply run out of juice. In addition, the "big break" must be the last PK Rockin of the day, as using that alone will use up all the PSI he has, whether or not he's used the other two Rockins.**

 **That was a long paragraph… but since PK Rockin is so powerful, it must come at powerful drawbacks to. I-I swear it's not just to avoid a "Storybreaker Power"! But just as a final note, this is only PK Rockin in it's Alpha state. As the story progresses, Ness is gonna get to Beta, then Gamma, and finally… Omega. And with each upgrade to PK Rockin, things are just gonna get more ridiculous, to the point where each phase of PK Rockin might as well be treated like a different ability altogether. I hope you can look forward to seeing them all someday!**

 **One last thing. If you think PK Rockin is powerful, you haven't seen anything yet. It's not even the most OP power that awaits us, we've got both villains and heroes on the way with abilities that'll make Rockin Alpha seem cute! Who knows, maybe there'll be one that catches your eye in the next chapter?**

 **Thank you for reading, and if you have any criticism, comments, or concerns, feel free to let me know! I started writing this with the goal to become a better writer, so I can use everything I can get!**


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